If my calculation is correct I got about three hours of sleep last night.Apparently baby sleep comes and goes. I remember she slept so well when she was 3 months old but then a horrible vaccine shot ruined that (I'm still pro-vaccines in case you're wondering
). Then there was the 4-month sleep regression, then teething and a stuffy nose. None of those were pleasant but at least the reasons were understandable. After the second tooth appeared everything was perfect... for a few days. And then it got worse (understatement of the month).The cute little baby who used to sleep 8 hours straight now wakes up, no exaggeration, as often as 8 times in an hour. Even I can barely imagine that. I was standing by her bed not bothering to lie down until she woke up crying. With a little help she fell asleep in less than a minute. A couple of minutes later it all repeated. Occasionally I thought, "now she's really asleep" and tried to lie down. The wood inside my bed creaked and baby woke up again. This happened three times in a row. And when I finally did manage to fall asleep baby woke me up 20 minutes later. I could barely believe my good fortune when I once got almost 1.5 hours of undisturbed sleep.
Of course since it's me I can't just sit by and watch her steal my sleep. I need to know what the reason is so perhaps I can solve the problem and go back to nice long nights.
At first I thought it was just a frequent eating habit from when she was teething. As a solution I tried my best to feed her as rarely as possible to get the eating schedule back on track. It usually works but this time it didn't. Baby still woke up just as often and sometimes even 30 minutes after a long feeding. Hunger wasn't the thing that was waking her up. Then I assumed it must be her 6-month growth spurt. Maybe she FEELS LIKE she is hungry even when she's not. Growth spurt would have the opposite solution so I tried feeding her as often as possible for the growth spurt to pass. This didn't help either. In fact it made things even worse because the frequent eating disturbed her sleep even further. I considered letting her cry herself to sleep a few night in a row but I felt too sorry for the neighbours. I was out of ideas so it was Google to the rescue! 
The new theory is separation anxiety. She wakes up horrified that her parents are no where to be seen and starts crying. When we console her it reassures her that she wasn't left alone so she falls asleep only to wake up again just a moment later. Separation anxiety starts when baby realizes she is not attached to her mother and the mother could just leave without warning. It shows that the baby is reaching an understanding of self hood. According to Wikipedia it starts at around 8 months so perhaps Siiri is just extra smart. (Positive thinking!) Other websites say separation anxiety starts at around 6 months which further shows that this might explain the situation. Solution for nighttime separation anxiety is very NOT ME as it's very passive. It will go away on it's own in a few weeks... or months... or usually at least when the child is three years old.
Baby update: On Saturday, 6 months and 4 days old, Siiri learned to crawl backwards. One time she really wanted to reach a toy just in front of her. Me and Erkki were observing with amusement because it ALMOST seemed like she had a plan to get that toy but she kept getting distracted by other fun stuff around her. She turned 180 degrees, crawled closer (feet first), then turned 180 degrees and reached directly toward the toy. She's no quitter and she got the toy.
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