Help! At wits end with night waking

[DebsnOliver]

Hi

Can anyone out there help with my DS's night waking?  Up to being around 6 months after he no longer needed feeding through the night of course, he slept through most nights.  Then we discovered through a routine blood test he has a low blood platelet count.  He has been through a number of tests since then and at the same time had a number of childhood illnesses, conjuctivitis, sickness bug, croup (which are unrelated to the platelet count).  The tests have come back negative in that he hasn't anything sinister, however we have been back and forth to the hospital and he had an overnight stay with croup.

He is now waking at the worst every 20 minutes and at best every hour.  We are at our wits end, we want to do controlled crying as we have been assured that there is nothing physically wrong with him, but it seems so cruel.  He is bunged up as well due to teething and the saliva etc is making him cough which isn't helping. 

Is this simply anxiety after what he has been through?  He is oK sleeping through the day apart from being a bit more clingy.

Do we do pu/pd?  Controlled crying? 

At the moment I feel like its going to be like this forever and to say that Im tired, emotional etc is an understatement.

Please help.

[Kimberly®]

I am so sorry you have had to go through this {{HUGS}}

Assuming you mean that your DS is now healthy I suggest PU/PD. CC is not advocated here its against the principles of Tracy and what she is trying to teach us.

PU/PD will help your DS relearn how to settle himself and know that you are still there for him. It will mean some hard work for you but its will be  well worth the effort.

Have you given him anything for the teething?

I'm going to move this to the PU/PD bored as they will be better able to help you with the technique.

[DebsnOliver]

Hi

thanks so much for your prompt reply.  I tried a different approach last night by putting Oliver who is 8 months by the way - to bed at 7:00 pm and he slept soundly until around midnight.  I think he was getting too tired as we had let his bedtime slip.  Back to the bedtime routine from now on!  He woke a number of times, but nothing like he has been doing and each time I let him cry a little bit before I went in and just put my hand on his chest.

I think another hurdle we need to overcome is that he is crying for his dummy - I really would like to stop him wanting that in the night and to settle himself. 

any suggestions?  Do I take it away altogether (which I think will be like climbing everest!) Or just don't keep putting it back in in the night?  I favour the latter but anything you can do to help will be welcome!