This is my first post so please be gentle! :)
My daughter has just turned 9 months old and has previously been a great sleeper (started sleeping through the night from 3 months old, always napped well, and could fall asleep independently). However, about two months ago, she started waking up several times throughout the night, her naps became short (around 30 minutes) and she started waking at 5.30 am! At first, I thought it might have been the 8-month sleep regression, but I feel like it's been going on too long!
We moved her into her own room around the same time this started happening, but I've ruled this out as she slept fine for the first couple of weeks. A couple of friends have suggested that she could be having trouble consolidating her sleep cycles, which is why she is waking up so regularly. I've tried numerous things such as blackout blinds and continuous white noise to get her to sleep for longer throughout the day, but there's been no improvement. Another friend has suggested leaving her to whinge/controlled crying but whenever she wakes up (either during the day or night), the first thing she does is sit up or pull herself up into a standing position at the end of the cot, so naturally, I'm worried about leaving her incase she falls back and hits her head!
I guess I'm just looking for some advice :) has anyone experienced the same thing, and if so, how did you survive?! I'm due to return to work in 6 weeks and I'm not going to be able to function on next to no sleep! x