14 weeks old fights sleep. advice please

[mummy2pickle]

Since she was born we have rocked, sung, patted etc to sleep due to her being very sorry for first 8 weeks. Now she is much bigger and heavier I still find myself having to rock her to sleep nap times and bed times. The problem is she fights me every time she scratches and kicks until it's hard to hold her. Sometimes it can take 2 hours to get her to sleep to then put her down and Wakes and of start again. Hubby and I are gradually losing patience doing this 4 times a day and it's starting to hurt our arms and knees
Has anyone experienced this and overcome it? If so can you share you advice we are now desperate, I'm not overly keen on letting her scream in cot. Thanks

[mummy2pickle]

**meant to say due to her being very poorly!!

[CityDweller]

Yes, this was DD. Around the time she got to the scratching/ pulling thing while I was rocking her to sleep I took her struggling to mean that she didn't want to be rocked anymore and wanted to be down in her cot, free to settle herself. Have you tried having her self-settle? I found that DD protested for no longer prior to dropping off when I started putting her down to sleep, rather than rocking her. And it saved my poor knees/ back/ face/ neck/ etc.

[Hamnvik]

Same as CityDweller when DS started fighting me that was his way of telling me he wanted to be left alone to go to sleep. Still takes forever to fall asleep but now mostly lies in his cot and falls asleep on his own.

[mummy2pickle]

Thanks I may well try this when she starts to fight. I find it hard listening to her cry which I'm sure she will as she has never self settled but maybe a bit of perseverance will save our backs! I shall keep you updated

[Definitelysometime]

We have exactly this. 14 weeks yesterday. No idea on the solution though as she screams blue murder if left in the cot... Am so exhausted from spending most of the day bouncing / rocking! How does your DD sleep at night OP? Does she fall asleep during feeds or do you need to rock at night too?

[eatplaysleep]

We had exactly same with ds . Didn't want to leave him to cry but due to being a big boy just couldn't keep up the rocking 4/5 times a day especially as could be doing it anywhere between 30 mins-2 hours. We now put ds straight into cot awake. He cries around 5-15 mins before falling asleep which isn't ideal but when I look back he would be crying during rocking period anyway, so shorter cries and a less stressed mum whose body isn't killing her from rocking is better solution for us at the moment.

[mummy2pickle]

I tried putting her in cot for morning nap today before she starting kicking about but screamed blue murder and with her lungs can be heard down the road! I left her 5 minutes and there was no sign of settling so picked her out and she fell straight asleep in my arms. I am going to persevere with putting her in cot when signs of tired even if she screams for 5 minutes and tires herself out more saves my arms for that time! She generally at night gets drowsy after last bottle and falls asleep easier in my arms but I dread if she wakes and doesn't settle after night feed as that's me rocking her for an hour in middle of night. I just hope when solids are introduced this gets easier but she's now getting any lighter!!