Frequent Night Wakings-9 months

[thbriggs]

My name is Tiffany and I've been posting the ongoing saga of sleeping training my daughter Bailey at 9.5 monts on the pu/pd board.  It has taken us about 4 nights to get Bailey settled into going to sleep on her own.  The fussing is fairly minimal and seems to be getting better each night.  Naps are still hit or miss in the difficulty factor, but I'll deal with one thing at a time.

Our real problem is that Bailey stirs herself awake and has problems settling back down about 4 times a night.  These occur randomly so I can't seem to get into her room before they happen.  9 times out of ten a minute of rubbing her back sends her back to dreamland, but last night I had to pick her up as she was irate and nothing seemed to calm her down.  15 minutes later I had her back to sleep.  We see the doctor tomorrow in reference to a possible acid reflux problem, but I'm not sure that this is the cause of her night difficulties. 

I've asked my husband to move her crib to the other side of the room as sometimes I think she wakes up and turns herself around to stare at the TV he has on in our bedroom all night long...she has a perfect view of the TV from her room.  I have eliminated night feedings as the problem as she hasn't taken a bottle in the middle of the night for about a month and I'm fairly certain this isn't a growth spurt.  She should cut one more tooth any time now, but I get the impression she is not uncomfortable from that.  The night wakings have been a problem for the last 3.5 months.

We've been transitioning to the EASY routine for the last 5 days and it seems to be progressing well.  OUr only difficulties are moving the E before the A.  I am pregnant with baby number two and am high risk with complications that require weekly visits to the doctor 2 hours away.  These trips will throw the EASY routine into a tisy once a week, but otherwise things should be okay the other 6 days.

Any recommendations on how to deal with the nightwakings?

Tiffany

[Katet]

I think you will find if you keep doing what you are doing it will improve, if she has a long history of night waking, but now the wakings are needing minimalintervention, they will get even less. It just doesn't get better overnight, if it has been going on a long time.
If she is only fussing LEAVE HER. If she is crying, listen to the cry before you respond - once I worked out different crys I used to count to 100 before getting up & helping my ds back to sleep.
the tooth could have been the problem for the difficult wake up!

[thbriggs]

Appreciate the input.  I have worked on differentiating the night time cries the last couple of nights.  Last night I recognized 2 quick fussing cries and stopped my husband from going into her room as I know that will only aggravate things.  At least once a night though it seems to be a serious po'd cry and I'll have to go in and settle her back down.  I think your right, this too shall pass.  She goes on Zantac tonight and we'll see if that helps as well! A couple of times now I have gone in when she's seriously angry to find her sitting up in her crib, I'm wondering if this is why she's rightly ticked off, as she may not have figured out how to lay herself back down!

Tiffany