Sorry in advance for the long post. Also my grammar as I am exhausted and to tiered to think straight. Truly appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this and help me out of a hole.
I have been following the baby whisperers advice since my lo was four months. We have had our ups and down with moving house, trouble with starting solids, teething and traveling, but always managed to get back on track until now. My daughter had stomach upset right from the start of introducing solids, just getting use to digesting them and also intolerance's causing re-flux, gas and sleep disturbance. When she hit around nine months my plunket nurse wanted me to try increase her meal size because she thought she was a bit behind. This caused her to start waking again then during that she started to get her top four teeth come through at the same time. My partner was complaining about not getting enough sleep and wanted me to try cio, because he though that her sleep habits were more to do with my approach than mentioned hurdles. I eventually second guessed myself and tried cio. So it still didn't work, and I was worse off than what I had started. So I continued on with pu/pd when my baby wasn't in pain, but things didn't settle down like they had before. My guess is because of cio, 9mnth separation anxiety regression and the re-flux and teething again, (her bottom gums have been swollen for more than two months now).
..But onto what I need the advice about. Now that her sleep is completely out of wack, I'm a bit confused. When I go to put her down for a nap/sleep she will have a bit of a babble roll around a bit then lie on the mattress completely still and calm for about ten fifteen minutes. Then all of a sudden she will roll over with a new burst of energy wide awake!! it can take me anywhere for 30-120 minutes to get her to sleep. She mostly just plays/fidgest with her zip, feet, the sheet, etc. until she eventually just rolls over and falls asleep. Why does she go from being completely calm to active and wide awake. She is on a routine, half an hour before bed and naps I breast feed, do teeth change nappy, read her a book, then go into her room and sing her a song. Then I will stand with her a few moments, when she stops fidgeting so much and is calm I will put her down. She acts like she is over tiered but she is a year old now, after getting up at 7 she starts to get tiered at two hours. I have tried to stretch it out a bit but she gets worse
I feel like I am in a downward spiral because she gets such a horrible sleep during the night with re-flux and waking up has become a bit of a habit even on the nights when she is ok, that it affects her during the day. So I have stuck with the short wake period during the day trying to correct the night first. What do I tackle first? Her dietitian appointment is in two weeks, but I feel the pressure to improve her sleep. She is a really happy baby but I do notice bags under her eyes and my partner and now his mother are now ganging up on me saying that I flogging a dead horse, that her sleep issues are caused by my approach. She is coming down to stay tomorrow night and I am feeling like I need some progress or some way to defend the pu/pd approach. With the little sleep I have been getting my nerves are frail atm.
Please, please any advice is welcome.