Parenting: 6 - 9 Months Community

I'm looking for some help. My daughter is 6 months old, and has always been a pretty good sleeper. We were down to a consistent one wake up per night a few weeks ago, so after consulting our doctor, we decided to cut out our last middle of the night feeding. That part has worked fine, and I am actually finding that my daughter eats more overall after we cut the out the mid-night snacks.

To go along with this, we also decided to go ahead with some sleep training. It has gone great, and I am 100% sure she would be sleeping a full 11 - 12 hours a night except that for the last 7 nights straight she has pooped herself awake every morning around 4 - 5 AM.

I don't know how to handle this. I have tried two approaches:

1. Change the diaper with the least amount of interaction possible. I actually do it in her crib and in the dark by placing a diaper cloth underneath her. I never pick her up.
2. If she wakes up within 1 hour of her normal awakening time (6 AM or later), I leave her in the crib. At bedtime, I lather her up with more diaper cream than you can imagine and thus far, no diaper rash has emerged. The result usually includes a leaky diaper and the resultant laundry, but my daughter otherwise seems no worse for wear.

The problem is this: I hate leaving her in her dirty diaper for obvious reasons, but no matter what I do to decrease the impact of the diaper change, she refuses to go back asleep. Last night this resulted in her waking up at 4:30 AM and never returning to sleep for the rest of the night until her morning nap. If I let her stew in her own juices, she normally goes back to sleep within 30 minutes of fussing.

So, what do I do? Do I continue to do the midnight changes and hope that her late night pooping goes away on its own? Do I let her sit in her diaper because that's the only way I guarantee good sleep?

Note: My daughter just started solid foods about a month ago and only started really eating in earnest maybe 2 weeks ago. The late night pooping has also been accompanied by more daytime pooping as well. The girl who used to go once a day everyday is now a 3X/day girl.

The best solution would obviously be that she stops the late night pooping, but I have no idea how to make that happen. If anyone has any ideas for decreasing frequency of poop, keep me posted!