Sleep Wars Episode II

So MLO has generally napped better since learning to crawl and since starting solid foods. Alternatively, he has had a harder time going to sleep. I removed his bumper from the crib as he started pulling himself up on the rails and I didn't want him launching himself over. Now that he can see out the sides from a laying position he just wants to play. He will spend over an hour crawling around his crib, pulling himself up and whining even though he is clearly exhausted. I don't get it.

Last night I made an interesting discovery that I think is related to both solid food and cloth diapers. Since MLO has started on solids he seems more likely to go longer at night before wanting to eat, no big surprise there. Also, he urinates less as he doesn't consume milk before going to bed. Since he stopped wetting so heavily we recently decided to go back to cloth diapering at night. As such, when he wakes up to nurse I have been changing him before-hand to be sure that he gets changed before nodding off while nursing. Last night he awoke at 12:45 and 5:30, both times giving his usual cry of' "Come feed me, dammit!" I put him on the changing table and he threw a fit, as usual. By the time his diaper was changed (it takes me a bit longer with cloth than with disposables) he was no longer upset. In fact, he didn't seem hungry. I rocked him in the chair for a bit before putting him back in bed and he was fine both times. He did end up whining again around 6, so I got up and fed him and off to sleep he went.

So, what does this mean? Well it might mean nothing. MLO has gone through the night without nursing (or waking, for that matter) before, and nothing changed in the long term. Though, I have to wonder if the waking and going back to sleep with no nursing is a step for us. He is used to nursing once at night, and I suspect he uses that more to get back to sleep than to quench thirst or fill an empty achy tummy. If I can get him back to sleep without nursing him, maybe we are closer to getting himself back to sleep. Again, we could let him cry it out, but I'm just not comfortable with that. We have tried it before and it ends up making us all miserable for an hour or longer. So we will see. Any of you experienced moms have any suggestions/observations to share?