Help, new sort of night wakings & nothing seems to work!

[Aunty Vi]

DD (6 months) has just started having a new sort of night wakings in the last week or so.  She doesn't cry as hard as when she is in major pain (e.g. when she was teething), so we didn't want to give her medicine, but I haven't yet figured out what, if anything, is wrong.  At first we thought she might be hungry, as nothing seemed to get her back to sleep except feeding her (I have posted in Breastfeeding about this).  But other times she did not seem to be particularly hungry, so I am getting less convinced it is that.

When she wakes, she cries but it is not her most full-on cry, and is more on-and-off.  The first few times she did sound like she wanted me, so I went in, but nothing I did seemed to help apart from feeding her.  But the last 2 nights she has sometimes woken and been more "complaining" than crying, and didn't sound as though she necessarily needed anyone, so when that was the case I just left her to see if she could settle herself.  Sometimes she can, but she sometimes keeps up the "complaining" for a very long time first (well over an hour sometimes), and keeps us awake with it. 

Other times though she is crying a bit more and sounds as though she does want someone, so I go in, but then it seems as though nothing I can do helps her to get back to sleep, except sometimes feeding her.  If I try shh/pat she just grabs at my hands and gets more awake, if I try PUPD she pulls at my hair or arches her back and wants to be put back down, but doesn't really calm down.  It sometimes seems as though the more I do to try and help her sleep, the more restless she gets!  If I just leave her she seems to take a very long time to go back to sleep though, or sometimes starts crying more.

I can't really think what else could be wrong unless it is her nappy rash irritating her (she does have a bit of a sore bottom at the moment but I've been putting cream on and it is getting better, and doesn't seem to bother her in the day) or just not being sleepy for some reason - though I would think she would get sleepy again after being awake so long!  But I am really stuck to know what to do when she starts; I have usually ended up feeding her in desperation because nothing else seemed to help, but don't want it to start being a prop when I don't think she is really hungry (or at least not every time)!  I have wondered about just going in, giving her a stroke and soothing her a bit and going out again instead of staying, do you think that might work better?  Or any other suggestions?  Thank you!

[Aunty Vi]

Bumping in case anyone can help!

Had another very rough night last night, not much sleep from about 3am onwards...  She was not crying fiercely or non-stop, but on and off the whole time.  I could sometimes get her to sleep by going in and doing very soft shh-shh noises or "night night, sleepy time" etc without touching her (which seems to make her more awake & wanting to play), and sometimes she fell asleep for a while on her own, but each time she dropped off she woke again with a cry soon after.  Nurofen/teething gel didn't help so presumably it's not teething pain, and I tried a paci but she just took it out and played with it...

I am starting to wonder whether it is development-related, as she is starting to roll around in bed more and I sometimes find her on her tummy (she has always slept on back/side up till now), so not sure if she is either getting stuck that way sometimes (though she can roll both ways, but maybe finds it harder in a grobag) or wants to be on her tummy but can't sleep that way yet, or is starting to think about next steps e.g. crawling and can't settle because she is too excited about that?  Also when she does roll around the cot she sometimes ends up in funny positions against the side, and either bumps herself on the rails when she moves or gets her arms stuck through them, which probably isn't helping although I don't think it's the whole problem (maybe a cot bumper would help, though I think she would probably just play with it...).  Anyone experienced this & if so how long is it likely to last??

I would think she just wasn't tired or something, but think she must be as she doesn't usually have massive daytime naps, and surely can't be wide awake from 3am nearly right through till morning with only a few dozes in between?! 

[Tweakster]

Hi there could you post the routine.  I would not rule out teething just because the meds didn't help much.  Sometimes they don't :-(  Nappy rash and discomfort at night can be teething signs.

The rolling is definitely developmental and lasts until they move on to the next big thing (which usually happens fast with these kids, don't worry :-)) but it sounds like this was prompted by something else.

[Aunty Vi]

OK well her routine is usually something like this:

Wake & feed - 7am (in theory, but often waking much earlier at the moment, though I don't feed her till 7 unless she seems like she needs it!)
Breakfast (solids) - usually somewhere between 8-9am.
9.30 or 10 - first nap (but she is not a very consistent napper & also gets dragged around after DS a bit on days when I have both of them - so naps are quite variable & can be anywhere between 40 mins and 2 hours).
11 or 11.30 - milk
12.30-1 lunch (solids)
2nd nap somewhere after lunch & before next milk - but quite variable depending how long she slept at first nap.  Again anywhere from 45 mins to 2 hours depending how long she manages to sleep for.
3.30ish - milk
Most days she will have a catnap of around 30 mins sometime around 5 or 5.30, unless she has slept really badly up to this point (especially if she has only managed one good nap so far), in which case she sometimes has a long nap starting soon after the afternoon feed instead. 
6ish tea (solids)
7pm - feed & start bath/bedtime
7.30 - sleep.

I should have mentioned she has already got 2 teeth - when they were coming she woke lots at night too, but then cried really hard (more than she is doing at the moment).  If she was bad we gave her nurofen or calpol and that did seem to help her sleep.  She didn't get nappy rash then though, in fact has never had it until recently so I think that is probably due to starting solids.