Don't how to handle these nightwakings

[Lucysmom]

Hi - My dd is just a year old and we have very rarely had nightwakings.  Now she is waking during the night and I do not know how to handle things without creating bad habits and breaking her trust.  The nightwakings are linked to developmental milestones galore: she just started crawling and took a few steps on her own.  Also, she just got a new tooth and she had shots on Friday that she did not tolerate well.  So overall, lots going on.

When she wakes up in the night crying, she wants to fall asleep on me or dh.  If we put her in her crib after she has fallen asleep, she wakes up and cries.  If I leave the room for a second to go get my robe she FREAKS out.  I tried wi/wo and the minute I turned to go to the door she went absolute bonkers.  I would turn right around and come back and she would calm down to a normal cry but then would once again go crazy if I turned to leave.  I have tried laying on the floor in her room and she will doze sometimes but often continues moving about her crib and crying off and on.  So I think we have some separation anxiety in there too.  Molars are not coming through (I made the pediatrician check when we were there on Friday).  During the day, she is more whiney than usual but we are attributing this to her shots mostly.  Also, I know that sometimes with increased independence toddlers get afraid and want the security of their parents.

She is on two naps a day.  Her schedule is usually like this:

6:30 wake
7 breakfast
8:30/9 bottle
9:30 nap
11 awake
11:30 lunch
2 bottle
2:30 nap
4 wake
5 dinner
7/7:30 bottle and bed after bath

Any thoughts on how to handle this would be most appreciated!  Thanks!

[imsmum]

How is she goiing to bed at night?  Is she able to go down on her own?  And what about naps?

[Lucysmom]

She goes down on her own fine for naps and at bed.  Very rarely do I have to intervene and she rarely fusses.  Just bangs around the crib, talks to herself and then she's asleep.  Wakes up from naps and in the morning happy and chatting away.

[imsmum]

as far as how to handle the night wakings I would be able to calm my dd usually with just standing with a hand on her until she started to drift off again, especially in the first half of the night.  sometimes if she wants out I would just give her a ddep hug while she was standing in the crib until I could feel her body starting to relax and then I knew I could lie her down.  For wakeups in the second half of the night she could be awake for a couple of hours so I wouldn't stand there the whole time--like you I would lie on the floor.  It eventurally got so I wouldn't need to go in very often becuse she wasn't crying or upset, probably because she knew I would respond.  So I would continure to go into comfort but then work on the withdrawal by slowly withdrawing physical contact and just start making it less and less over time.