All Night Nursing @18 months

[@llli*tiredmomma]

My 18month old daughter has reverted back to nursing 100% of the night. She starts off in her crib every night, but ends up in our bed at some point.

Recently, she demands to be latched on ALL NIGHT! If I remove myself, she wakes up, and starts saying "please, please" and it not only breaks my heart, but makes it even more impossible to sleep.

I am cursious to know if this is a common issue, and if it corelates to some developmental process she is going through, or if it is something I need to put an end to. I dont want her to wean off yet, since I plan on nursing until she self weans, so I am fine nursing at night, but not being latched onto all night. I dont want to be her hunman pacifier anymore!!!

Do I attempt to re-introduce a pacifier? Anyone have any suggestions? Help! Im so tired!!

[@llli*nathansmum]

I think it is a phase related to language development and increasing independance, which is both exciting and frightening for them, so they are seeking comfort. My ds went through the same thing at 18 months.

By 19 months he slept better than ever for a while. He would even decide it was time for bed shortly after his bath, say "night night" and wait on the bed for me with a book. Then go to sleep super fast and wake up only once to nurse!

Now at 21 months he's just started nursing all night again.

The 18 month phase was so bad I even tried night weaning out of desperation, but that just seemed to make it worse.
Hang in there, it will end. Just do whatever you can to get more sleep. Go to bed earlier, take naps, try the pacifier.
I eventually got so tired that I would just find a comfy position and sleep through it. I also moved him to his own room for the first part of the night so he would sleep longer without dh and I waking him up when we went to bed.
Good luck

[@llli*mommal]

Could she be teething or have an ear infection? Those are 2 variables to eliminate before you try to change what's going on at night.

[@llli*zaynethepain]

If it's not pain related like mommal mentioned, then I agree is probably developmentally related. Ds had an extreme few weeks of restless sleep at that same age. At the same time he was moving from a 50-75 word vocabulary to several hundred words and short sentences. Once he got through that phase he stayed sleeping through the night except for a very manageable 2 nursings a night until this month when his last molars have appeared.

[@llli*debbers]

If it helps we are going through this on and off at 18.5 months. Mine has never STTN and I just started to get some longer stretches of sleep. She's a chatterbox but still only one, two or three words at a time plus the chatter that makes sense to her. She repeats or calls out or recognizes - oh - 100+ words I guess. She understands practically everything. I imagine there's a long prep time for more complex talking and that brain is working and developing a lot day or night. And it's probably frustrating that she can't communicate to us as well as she can understand us. I can see the frustration during waking hours. Book! Book! Book! (She wants to read but I'm not sure which of the 75 books she wants). So nursing all night (kind of) makes sense.

I didn't look up your profile so I'm not sure if you work. I do, full time, and part of our night nursing is also making up for my absence during the day. We co sleep, which I love, but some days it's rough. On weekends I nurse a lot and try to nap with her when I can.

You have my total empathy on this one. The scary thing for me is knowing Ill wake up one day and she might not want to nurse or snuggle. Scarier is that I'll blink and she'll be a teen. So I kind of have to cherish the now.