My 9 month old has been doing this thing for about 2 months now, where she starts off crying but if I go in she is still pretty much asleep, and I can rub her back and she'll go off to sleep again - usually for a couple of hours if not more.
If I leave her, the crying wakes her up and becomes more frantic. We have not really got into dealing with that as I just stumble in and deal with it in the early stages.
BUT am I just perpetuating the cycle? Or am I responding rationally to her needs - and what I think may be linked to teething; she has been cutting all four top teeth at once for a few weeks now.
She has a bottle at 10.30ish as I go to bed, and hasn't had one mid-sleep for a while, so I'm fairly sure it's not hunger. She's not waking on the dot of the same time each night, and some nights does it very little while others it's almost every two hours. Every few days she will do it about 5am and the back rubbing doesn't send her back to sleep: she's ready to party for the day!
I know it's not the end of the world as I am only up for a few mins each time but it does affect my sleep and I am starting work imminently, and really would like to minimise her wakings. Husband thinks maybe we should leave her but I am sure she'll wake up more each time and then we'd have to choose what we did in terms of techniques for managing that... or is he right? Do I need to swot up on CC, PUPD etc?!
Sorry for rambly post - off to bed now in the hope of a few hours of sleep at a stretch...