Nighttime ECing, light sleeper?

[jenneology]

We are hitting a stage that is making me so crazy!

Beauty is 6 months old and for the last few days is sleeping h.o.r.r.i.b.l.y and I'm wondering if its related to potty-ing. In the last month, I've been nighttime ECing. At night I try to respond to her fusses to give her a chance to go potty. Its been pretty successful because she'll lay back down and go back to sleep (except sometimes at 6 am when she thinks its time to play).

I've been thinking that this sleeplessness (only sleeping 1 hr -1.5 hrs at a time when it used to be 5-6 hours) and frequent crying at night might be that she's come to expect that stirring a little bit means a full wake up to go to the potty and then playtime.

For a while, I had kept the potty within arms reach of the bed so we wouldn't have to get out of bed for her to pee, but found that it was less disruptive for the other sleepers in the room for me to pick her up and take her to the potty in the bathroom at night. I think this might wake her up more fully and is giving her the expectation that sleep is not deep or for long stretches. (I'm just thinking out loud here).

I've thought of one way to not wake her up so much and that is to get a dim night-light for the bathroom so we don't have full-on bright lights during these potty trips.

This is also coinciding with me realizing that she may not sleep as well in a bedsharing relationship so I'm going to be moving her to a separate room for sleeping If she does end up sleeping better in a separate room, I'm still going to try to continue ECing at night with her, but I plan to use the electronic monitor to alert me to when she stirs.

Of course all of this means dismantling the sidecar, moving it to the other bedroom and completely rearranging that room! All on a hunch! Which is why I'm testing the hypothesis with a pack in play for a few days.

I'm just trying to figure out if this stage that we're struggling with (we have had 4 very sleepless nights in a row) is due to:
1) pottying
2) a normal developmental stage
3) teething
4) not sleeping soundly sharing a sleep arrangement
5) something I haven't yet considered
6) combination of the above

Any thoughts on what you think might be going on? Anyone have experience with something like this?

[sgmom]

Could it be teething? Is she getting enough solid foods during the day? Are you night nursing (if so, how often)? Is she crawling (or about to)? Has she had any shots recently?

It absolutely could be any of the above, or a combination of. My daughter slept 10-12 hours from 2-3 months until 6 months, when she started waking up EVERY 45 minutes. In her case, it was a combination of all 3. Offering more solids during the day helped quite a bit (nb: during the day, NOT right before bed - a too full belly can hinder sleep), but she would still wake up and fuss with her teeth (wouldn't settle, wanted to nurse, etc, then 2 came through 4 weeks later). She also started crawling the same week she cut those teeth.

In our case though, co-sleeping is what helped. She was in a crib, and we traded the crib for a twin size mattress. Our bed wasn't big enough, so this way we could still co-sleep with her in her own room if need be.

I'm sorry I don't really have anything else to offer... 6 months can be a pretty tricky age (or at least it was for us).