8-month old waking up screaming!

[laucal]

My son Ryan is 8-months old and just started crawling and pulling up.  He didn't sit up until he was 7-months and since then everything has happened very quickly for him.

This last week he has been waking up between 11 and 1 at night screaming and can't be consoled.  I ultimately end up picking him up and putting him to sleep. He never did this before and has been sleeping through the night since 4-months with an occasional wake up that would be very short.  It takes me up to one hour to get back to sleep. As soon as he wakes up he is either sitting up screaming or is standing in his crib.  He can't settle himself down becasue he won't lay down.

His schedule is as follows:

5:30 awake
6:00 am 7 oz bottle with rice cereal(formula)
play time (crawling and standing)
7:30 nap time (45-min to 1-1/2 hours)
9:00 breakfast (fruit with oatmeal)
10:15 7 oz bottle with rice cereal
11:00 nap time ((45-min to 1-1/2 hours)
12:30 lunch (veg with meat)
play time
2:15 7 oz bottle with rice cereal
3:00 walk
3:45 nap (45 min)
5:00 dinner (veg, fruit )
6:15 7 ox bottle with rice cereal
6:45 bath
7:00 bedtime

Note -

He has no teeth but has been drooling and biting things since 4-months old.  He also has acid reflux which is why he takes rice cereal in all his bottles. He definitely has been showing signs of separation anxiety with us. 

My question is - what do I do about the night wakings? Do I continue to hold him and put him back to sleep?  Do I let him scream? Even when I go in there and just put my hand on him to let him know I am there he will stop crying for a minute but then start screaming again.  I always think well this time there must be something wrong.  So I pick him up and then he stops screaming.  He plays me each time!

He has no problems putting himself to sleep at naptime and bedtime - so why in the middle of the night all of a sudden.

Please help - this has been 1-week of no sleep!! I feel like I am back at square 1.

Thank you for listening!

[Colin Macs Mom]

Often they learn to pull up, sit up, stand up, whatever but it takes longer for them to learn how to get back down again. Most likely it isn't that your DS "won't" lay down, but can't. During the day, try and work with him on mastering that. Show him how to gripthe crib bars and slide them down his hands as he gets back down. He'll learn, but it might take another couple of days (sorry.).