Night Wakings 4 weeks after starting PU/PD

[milesmac]

We started PU/PD with our 12 month old approximately 4 weeks ago.  The first few weeks were very tough as we seemed to have some regression with regards to getting him to sleep.  That has settled down now but we are still dealing with frequent night wakings and don't know how to get rid of them.

Our routine:

Wakes between 0700 and 0730

First nap between 1000 and 1030 and will sleep for 90-120 minutes

Second nap between 1500 and 1600 and will sleep 60-90 minutes

Bed time is usually around 1930

He wakes between 2300 and 2330, between 0230 and 0300 and between 0500 and 0530.

When he goes down for his naps, he falls asleep quickly and easily if we stay in the room with him.  If we leave the room, he pulls himself up in the crib and crys/screams until we come back in the room.  We had previously tried the cry it out method.  We did not like it and it failed miserably.

When he wakes during the night, he is often wedged in the corner of the crib.  We move him out of the corner, put the blankets back on and he falls right back to sleep.  Other times, he seems to wake for no apparent reason.

How do we teach him to self soothe without resorting to "cry it out"?  SHould we put him to bed and leave the room?  How long do we let him cry when he wakes in the night?

Hoping to fix this soon.  We are both very tired.  I am working full time and am 8 weeks pregnant (which we are thrilled about  ).  Would love a good nights sleep!

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks

Anne

[teezee]

when doing pu/pd are you trying to settle in the crib first? with putting your hand on lo's back or tummy (depending on how he sleep..) and not making eye contact, just being silent, or even trying to say something in a soothing voice "shh it's ok it's only sleep time..". if lo does arch while doing pu/pd he doesn't want to be held and wants to soothe himself...although he may cry a little before actually soothing that's his way of using up extra energy and getting it out of his system so to speak. another thought i had was are you maybe going in too soon to resort to pu/pd.  it is ok to let lo fuss/self soothe/cry to a point - as lo's get older (i know in my case it is) the mantra cry becomes harder to recognize and isn't necessarily the same wa wa wa it used to be.  if your lo is crying i would let him be for a bit longer than you normally would - if it escalates to the I NEED YOU NOW MOM cry go to your lo as cio isn't going to help you and your lo get any further with progress and will break trust that you have already established. i know there were times i was very torn as my dd was back and forth between an almost freaking out kind of cry and then back to a mantra cry and i forced myself to leave her that couple minutes longer and by the time i got to her bedroom door i didn't hear any crying...go figure.  anyway, you may already have heard/done all of this - but i hope something has been useful.

i just reread your post and realized that you had indeed tried cio - and maybe that is why your lo will not fall asleep w/o you in the room - as he is worried you won't come back (trust issue) and you may need to work on rebuilding the basis of that trust before you can move forward with the sleep issue.  have you got tracy's newest book?