Weaning toddler off dummy, any advice/suggestions?

[Mezby]

DD2 is 18 months and has never been a consistent sleeper unlike my other DCs. She often sleeps 12 to 13 hours a night but every week or so she will wake and stay awake for up to 3 hours in the night and will do this for a few days then go back to sleeping through. I often don't go into her as not of the time she just talks to herself in her cot but sometimes she gets upset an cross from being awake for so long and then I sometimes end up cuddling her if she's too upset. She has slept with a dummy for a long time as did my other DCs and although it wasn't a problem for them I'm wondering if she wakes up wantin her dummy. She has several in her cot so she is able to get one when she wakes but I'm wondering if I take them away will it encourage her to sleep better? A big part of me is reluctant to do it as she's too little to understand what is happening and it's such a source of comfort for her. Anyone been through something similar? By the way she has a bedtime routine of bath story then bed and has a nap around the same time every day.

We stopped dd1 having it when she was awake at 1. Then she dropped 1 down the toilet and we told her there were no more and she should wave it goodbye as it was going to go home she never asked for it again

She sleeps 12/13 hours a night but wakes up once every week or so.
Quit while you are ahead. Many parents dream of a child who sleeps so well.
I doubt the dummy has much to do with it.

Lol re your comment SecretSquirrels and I know what you mean but she's not been so well recently and because she's sometimes tired from a few nights of not much sleep it's hard for her to recover, plus she has started disturbing DS who needs a lot of sleep and as he has to go to school it's not fair on him. DD2 is by no means a terrible sleeper and I appreciate that other people have it much tougher but I would still like her to sleep better!

When I took DS's dummy away (at2.5) I made his sleeping worse as he was unable to self settle back to sleep in the morning. He used to wake around 7am and is now awake from 5.30am.

What about a dummy clip AT&T he'd to her sleeping bag?

Thank you for all your suggestions. I'm in two minds about taking dummy away now, might leave it for a while and see how we go.

we took dd1's away on her first birthday. she slept much better after that. i was pretty much convinced it would be a nightmare, but it was fine.

Quite likely to be developmental. There's a huge & very common sleep regression around 18 months (well, 18-21 months really). You can read about it here and here and here.

Personally I wouldn't mess with anything sleep-wise in this time.

We were unfortunately forced to give ds's dodi to the dodi fairy.

It was a grand ceremony consisting of putting it into an envelope & ds posting it in the red post box at the end of the road.
We then said a heart felt good bye to said dodi.

he never asked for it again, but told family and friends alike that it was a decision that had to be made, for the good of man kind. He was about 3 as i recall.

DS is nearly three, we've tried several times getting rid of the dummy or at least thinking about it, but he goes to sleep anywhere with it, and I'm just not brave enough to get rid of it yet....does sound like it won't make much difference if it's only every few weeks she wakes up and not all the time