PLEASE any advice on these sleep issues!

proudmommy15

This is going to be hard to shorten, but i'm going to try to make this LONG story short! 

 My DD has been having some major sleep issues. She is fixing to be 8 months old, but when she was younger (at the age doctor said it was okay to not wake her for night feedings), she would sleep about 7 hours straight. She was doing so good. I don't know if she hit the 4 month sleep regression or what happened, but it seems that she is getting worse with her night wakings. Its been going on for some time now, and I was giving in every night but I am so physically tired and mentally exhausted that I need to find some way to help her sleep better at night!

 She has always been nursed/rocked to sleep, I know, probably highly un recommended but she is my baby and I didn't want her to have to cry herself to sleep in a crib! So that is how our night starts off. I nurse her to sleep in the rocking chair, then lay her in her crib asleep, she has co slept since she was born, but I thought maybe I was disturbing her so I brought her crib into our room and put it beside the bed. Now things have gotten even worse! What used to seem like alot of night time wakings (3 to 5), has now turned into atleast 6 times at night. Approximately 30 minutes after I lay her in her crib, she is up screaming so I will get her out. Sometimes she'll nurse and go right back to sleep, others she'll be wide awake and act like she is ready to play! It's like she has insomnia or something. Last night she was wide awake for 3 hours in the middle of the night, wouldn't let me rock her, nurse her, rub her back or anything. She has gotten so much worse since I brought the crib into the picture, but when I bring her back into the bed with me she continues to wake up and cry out every 30 mins to an hour. 

The thing I can't understand is that she naps GREAT in her crib during the day.We go through the same nurse/rock ritual, then I lay her in her crib and she's fine. I've only been trying the crib for about a week and it works great for naps, but I SERIOUSLY need advice, tips, suggestions on all these night time wakings. I'm very anti CIO! It breaks my heart to hear her cry, most likely why I give in and get her out of her bed everytime she cries after only being asleep 30 minutes at night, but i'm so desperate for atleast FOUR straight hours at night.

Yes, I have consulted her Pediatrician, he is VERY set on letting her CIO, as in walking out of the room and not returning until she is asleep and no matter how many times she wakes up crying to ignore her! But that sounds SO harsh and I am worried she will be hungry since she eats so often at night now. She never took a pacifier and has always been exclusively breastfed so she won't take anything else as a soother. Oh, AND the very first night I tried the crib, she slept 5 hours straight after I layed her down. So I believe she can do it, I just don't know what is preventing her.

Thanks In Advance!