Weaning breastfeeding help

My 2 year old has breastfed all her life, and depends on it for sleeping. She breastfeeds when she’s upset or overwhelmed and instantly calms down.

Recently we have tried weaning the breastfeeding because it is affecting our sleep, she goes for hours or wakes up multiple times per night to feed, and we can’t do it any longer. Mom is really exhausted from it, and it affects her daytime.

The problem is she cries for hours at night, literally over 2 hours of crying that ruins everyone’s sleep, drains us all emotionally and in the end feels like everyone lost. I tried distracting her with screens, snacks, milk, toys, stories, redirecting, nothing works. We hold her, rock her, comfort her, for hours, and it doesn’t help. I don’t want to just ignore her, which I see others have done. She says “I’m so tired, I just want milk” and says she wants to sleep, because she just doesn’t understand why she can’t have it. Does anyone have any ideas?

We are limited in that we sleep in the same bed, and live in a small apartment where separate rooms is not an option. She throws tantrums for staying in her car seat, but otherwise she is good during the day time. Thanks for your suggestions. This is Dad posting btw.