Need a strategy for dealing with 10 month old's waking!

[chloechloe]

This week we have had three truly awful nights where our 10 mo DD has been awake for two hours in the middle of the night.

She self settles brilliantly at bedtime and usually gets herself to sleep straight after her bedtime routine. Sometimes she insists on standing up in her cot and I have to keep lying her down and shushing her until she gives up and goes to sleep.

Recently she's been waking at around 1:30 and standing up crying in her cot and will not be settled easily. Previously I would BF her in the night, put her back in the cot awake and she would drift off quite easily. Now though, she no longer seems to drink but rather just nuzzles and won't let go until I unlatch her. When I then put her in bed she cries.

It may well be that she is teething at the moment, as I can see the top two teeth through the gums but they seem to be taking weeks to pop through. I would be more than happy to co-sleep when she's teething, but she's an absolute nightmare if I bring her into bed. At best she insists on putting her hands down my top so I can't sleep. At worst (and usually), she scratches me (she's given me a nosebleed and an eye infection from scratching!), pulls my hair out in tiny fistfuls, throws her dummy around or crawls around the bed so I often have to catch her before she falls out.

PUPD doesn't work with her as she is content as long as I hold her, but the second I start to lie her down she starts crying again. Shush pat seems to work better but I'm not sure what to do in the middle of the night when she keeps standing up all the time.

I am due back at work in March and have no idea how I will cope. I think I just need to commit to some sleep training before I go back, but how? Comtrolled crying is not an option. She's in a cot in our room at the moment but I wonder whether to put her in her own room. Also we're going away for a couple of weeks next week which will no doubt disrupt her sleep so I guess there's no point starting until we're back home.

Sorry for the long post but I'm so tired that I'm so undecisive about what to do!

Shush pat seems to work better but I'm not sure what to do in the middle of the night when she keeps standing up all the time.

Exactly the same as you do at bedtime. Just keep lying her back down.

I know that's easier said than done in the middle of the night, but you do say that sometimes you have to do this at bedtime so it's not all that suprising that you need to in night wake-ups too.

I find adding a firm hand (on chest/back) while baby is lying in the cot is a useful addition to the shushing and patting - it teaches baby the need to be still in order to go to sleep.

Definitely put her in her own room at 10 months if you have the option. With a comfy chair in there for you.

Thanks for the replies ladies. A firm hand doesn't really work until she's totally exhausted - she's so strong she just keeps pushing herself back up again.

She has a bedroom ready and waiting for her - we just need to move her cot into it. We're going away next week but I think that when we come back I will bite the bullet and evict her!

I really wish I knew what it is that's waking her. The last few nights she has been waking at 3 or 4 after sleeping through solidly from 7 (for that I'm very thankful!) It seems that after 8 hours of sleeping she wants to start the day and our trying to get her back to sleep just winds her up.