# finally night weaned, but 19 month old still wakes-up a lot - please help!!!!



## bridget8500 (Jan 9, 2008)

okay, so I finally night weaned our 19 month old. I did it very gently, and did not CIO. I am 25 weeks pregnant, so I think my milk drying up helped. I also found that if I did not nurse her to sleep, she did not expect it when she woke up. Now I talk with her and lay with her, and she falls asleep not nursing, which is a miracle - I never thought we'd get there. By my standards, she slept through the night the first few nights, I was ecstatic - thought I was on to something. She has never slept more than 3-4 hours at a time, so I was thrilled. But after those first few nights which were 2 weeks ago, she is now back to waking up again - a lot! Last night she slept for 2 hours after I got her to sleep, and then was up every 45 minutes to 1 hour. I am desperate, tired, exhausted, frustrated, and now feel totally helpless. I thought once I neight weaned she's be sleeping well, but, we're back to square one, and now I feel I'm out of options. We have co-slept from birth, and I've been trying to transition her to her mattress which is next to our bed, she always ends up back in bed with us, at some point in the night - usually when I can't get her back to sleep by patting her on the back.

Also, naps are horrible now - I used to nurse her down for naps, and can't really do that any more - while she enjoys sucking, there is no milk, and she doesn't fall asleep. I resort to taking her in the car, and it's a total crap shoot whether or not I can make the transfer into the house.

Why is she still waking up? Everything I've read says once they learn to fall asleep on their own they can get themselves back to sleep. I will add that she is very high needs, and I think pretty high strung - she can stay up until 10 or 11PM, and just keeps going. When she does nap, it's about 45 minutes. Has anyone encountered this? I feel totally out of options now to get her to sleep longer, and am desperate - I'm starting to get worried that my lack of sleep will negatively impact the fetus.

Any suggestions/thoughts are appreciated,

Bridget


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## Magella (Apr 5, 2004)

My oldest was like that. She just didn't sleep without waking several times, after being weaned, for longer than you want to know.







In fact, none of mine slept through until at least 20 months old. I think it has more to do with maturity than with sleep associations. There is an excellent book about babies/kids sleep and how to gently help them get more/better sleep, called Sleepless In America by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. Worth a read.

It's hard to be up often at night while pregnant, I know. Hang in there.


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## Peony (Nov 27, 2003)

This is not uncommon, night weaning does not mean that they will actually sleep through the night. Some children do, some don't. In the end, they will STTN when they are biologically ready regardless if they are night weaned or not. For DD2, (she nightweaned herself during DS's pg) that was another 6 months before she was not waking up most nights. For me it is just about survival, do ahve anyone that can help out at night.


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## crunchymamatobe (Jul 8, 2004)

Yeah, nightweaning doesn't mean an end to night waking, unfortunately. My DS has been nightweaned for over a year and still wakes at night. Sometimes he sleeps right through, but most of the time he goes to bed in his room, wakes at some point and comes into our room (where we have his crib set up as a toddler bed), needs a drink and help getting the blankets over him, and then he goes back to sleep. Makes mama tired, but it's not the end of the world.


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## Island_Mama (Jul 12, 2006)

You probably don't want to hear this, but my DD is 28 months and wakes up a lot still. Granted she isn't fully nightweaned, but I have slowly worked on getting her to sleep by other methods, and it usually works, but she wakes up ( or still asleep but crying) and needs either water, tea (sweetner free alfalfa/mint) or milk. Now that she is almost potty trained (diapers at night) she wakes up to go "caca".

Also remember that they go through periods, so maybe she'll be back to sleeping through the night next week. My daughter is high needs also and she goes through phases. During these phases when she wakes up every half hour for water/milk/caca/buh bye (her lighting mqueen car) right when I think i can't go another night and will have to spend the day zombied out on the couch, she goes back to sleeping "normal" again. I am not sure if its a growth spurt or what.
I also use these CDs by Dr Jeffrey Thompson, Sleepy Rain and Sleepy Ocean. They don't work miracles but work nicely in conjuction with other things we do.
GL I hope you get some sleep soon!


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## MCsMom (Jan 15, 2006)

My DD was like this as well. DS is not night weaned yet so I am not sure about him. But just wanted to offer a (((Hug))) It has been over 4 years since I have seen anything remotly close to 'STTN' for myself no matter how you define it.


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## georgiegirl1974 (Sep 20, 2006)

I night weaned DD (3) SEVEN months ago (and completely weaned her 3+ months ago), and she still doesn't sleep through the night regularly. She probably sleeps through the night twice a week, but then the rest of the time she wakes 1-2 times. I'm due with #2 in 1.5 weeks, and I'm kind of freaking out because I don't think I'll be able to handle a newborn and DD's nightwakings.


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