7 month old girl waking up at midnite

[kikilein]

Hello,
I0ve been having trouble with my 7 month old baby girl. Ever since she was 9 weeks old she had been sleeping through the night. However, 3 weeks ago she began waking up in the middle of the night, once or twice each night, crying. At first we thought she might be cold so we made her warmer. Didn't work. Then we thought, she might be too hungry so we started feeding her solids one hour before bedtime. Didn't work either. I don't know what's wrong, but she cries while she's still half asleep, sometimes she seeks the breast other times she just wants to be picked up and goes right back to sleep. Can anyone help me? We don't know what's wrong or what we should do and it's creating a lot of tension with my husband. We are co sleeping, the baby's crib is in our bedroom but i've made it a rule that she doesn't get to sleep in the bed with us. But he gets mad that I don't let her in the bed when she's crying and I really think we should let her cry it out, the way my mom did with us because nothing else has worked and he gets mad and accuses me of wanting to make my baby suffer. I'm really starting to get desperate, please, some advice.
Thanks

[Newmom!]

First of all, know that baby sleep patterns change as they grow older. This is a phase that will change yet again after a while. Most likely nothing is wrong - or she is teething and that is bothering her. I used the tylenol and motrin and baby teething tablets kind of liberally during the teething stage. Eventually I think my baby found the sweet medicine taste soothing (as he was associating it with eventual pain relief? Just a theory) so I started to give him Mylecon gas drop when I didn't think he was really in pain. Those are consisdered very safe, and it seemed to do the trick of calming him. Anyway, a lot to say that it might be teething.

Other Thoughts:
Try patting her instead of picking her up or feeding her (believe me, you do not want to get night nursings started again - weaning those was a battle into the first year for us). She might be reasured by your touch, but you are interacting minimally so it should be easier to "wean" - as babies will often wake up and cry for the attention they think they will get if they have been getting it (they are not being manipulative, they just like getting the attention, understandably).
Cry-it-out is hard, and the "proper" method is to reasure (and calm if needed) her every few minutes that you are still around, even if you are not otherwise interacting with her.

You two need to make sure you discuss it around a relaxed time, not in the middle of the night. You'll be able to listen to each other better then, and maybe come up with a solution.

I personally would not start bringing her into the bed, as that will most likely become a habit that will be hard to break. But simply letting her cry-it-out might not work either, due to your husband's valid feelings. If you can compromise on something in between all the better.