7 month old waking 4/5 times a night - help!

[squarewheels]

ST has really ramped up her nocturnal wakings (and mine and Dads!) in the last two weeks. She used to sleep through the night when she was little (8 weeks to around 16 weeks), but we started settling her with a dummy at 3.5 months, and I wonder if that is the problem. I am trying with sporadic success to wean her off the dummy in day time and night time sleep in the hope that if I can kick that sleep association, she will settle herself better at night when she wakes up. Sometimes she will not re-settle at night without a breastfeed, but sometimes dummy will do the trick (although, either way, it means she will most certainly awake again a few hours later). I am loathe to do cc as mine is a very spirited one - I tried it when she was little and regret it, she would take over an hour to settle sometimes and I got post natal depression so I really don't want to go there again. At the same time I have to take action as I can't live exhausted like I am - or be the best Mum I can be on 5 hours of very broken sleep every night. Any ideas? Also does anyone know of a super nanny/ baby whisperer type person who could come in and perhaps help me with this?

Poor you. have you visited 'Sleep is for the Weak' thread. Tonnes of us there with night wakers . you may find specific advice...hth

oh, btw, most of us experienced a shift in waking patterns at around 4mths.

We were the same -ds slept from 2 to 4 months and then started waking up all the time. At 6 months we took away his dummy. He cried a lot for one night, then seemed to sleep much better for a couple of weeks then got worse again. Since then (he's now 10 months)his sleeping patterns have got shifted between periods of only one night waking to periods of several. At the moment he's waking a lot and I wish I still had a dummy to give him! So, I'm afraid that's no real advice - except that maybe it's not worth the effort of removing the dummy.

Thanks tryingtoleave and cruisemum1 - I am new to mumsnet so will check out that 'Sleep is for the Weak' thread to see if it helps.
tryingtoleave - poor you, you must have initially thought all the problems were solved with the removal of the dummy - which was my expectation and hope also. My mother keeps telling me that my sister and I never cried at night, because she did cc and that I can't have it both ways - a good night's sleep and no cc. I am just hoping I don't have to choose between the two and there is some other solution.