(almost) 1 year old will NOT go to sleep....

[fairycakes]

Can anyone relate to this - im sure it must be really common and just wondering if anyone has any tips/advice..

for the past 6 months (after a blissful first 6 months of sleeping through from 7pm-8am and settling herself to sleep..) we have had nothing but traumas at bedtime.

currently, i bath her at 6.30, then giver her 8floz formula in her bedroom. i then have to hold her until she falls asleep. 1-2 times a week this is no problem and she falls straight off in my arms after her bottle. the rest of the time she is very obviously tired and flops her head to my chest etc but keeps fighting it for at least an hour, wriggling and squirming andsometimes crying. I often give her a cold teether to chew on as that seems to settle her more, eventually she gives up and falls asleep.

if i put her in her cot awake - she stands up straight away and starts SCREAMING as if i am doing something awful to her until i give in and pick her up - i have tried so hard to leave her, but she gets so worked up and often makes herself sick - she has never in the last 6 months got herself to sleep, and she will not lie herself down once she is stood up.

am i going to have to accept that i have to get her to sleep before putting her down? or is there something i can do?!

sorry this is long!

thanks

Accept it until she's two.

You have my sympathies, my dd was as you describe, fine for the first six months, and then all went pear shaped. I ended up bf or cuddling her to sleep.

When she turned 15mths i got rid of cot, as she hated that so much, and put her on matress on floor. But had to lay with her to get her to sleep. At two she went in a bed and i had done the gradual withdrawl type thing but then she just kept getting up crying whenever i left her. so i started warning her that i'd shut the door if she didn't stay in bed and did so a few times only for couple of minutes. That did the trick, and now she is great i read stories and then leave her to fall asleep and she never gets out of bed.

thanks hattie05. i think i find it hard because she doesnt understand when i tell her things like she has to lie down etc - but when she is speaking etc and understanding it will be a lot easier to communicate these things to her, and bargain with her too.
thanks!

Yes, what i meant to say is there is light at the end of the tunnel!!

I got myself extremely frustrated over this thinking she'd have sleep problems for the rest of her life. If i could have looked into the future and see how easy it becomes when they are older and as you say can communicate with them then i probably would have just relaxed and enjoyed cuddling her to sleep.

Hi,
I had the same problem except my DD never slept through to start with. She would only go to seep if being held or fed so we decided to try CC, but she cried for 2 hrs and was sick each time. After 1 week of that I gave in. However, This is what we did do which worked a treat at 10 months old.

Give DD her milk and put her in the cot laying down, stayed in the room with my hand on her back(she slept on tummy) and sshushing, when she was relaxed I would move away from the cot, if she stood back up I would say 'lay down' and pick her up off her feet and lay her back down. Then I would put my hand back on her back, If she tried to stand up while my hand was on her back I would just gently but firmly hold my hand down harder. I would keep doing this until she relaxed enough and I could leave the room without her crying. If she started crying at any time id go back in and start the above again. When she stood we would always say 'lay down' and lay her down even though she didnt know what it menat and now all we need to say is lay down and she knows what we mean.
It takes a few days of doing the above for it to work and some nights we may have laid her down about 10 times but eventually it worked and with no crying. She is now 14 months and all we do is put her in the cot and leave the room and she will go to sleep, tonight I could hear her singing to herself in the cot. If she cries at all we just go back to doing the above, however this is very rare.
All I need now is a cure for sleeping through the night. Shes good at going to sleep but not staying asleep

fairycakes.. I thin it is a turning 1 thing. mY ds slept through from being 8 weeks old including outting himself to sleep. The a few months back he stopped..(he is 14months) He slleeps through most nights but we have to sit in his bedroom on his floor until he goes to sleep. In the last couple of weeeks he has even started to make himself sick if we do leave the room...
We have to sit there for about 30mins sometimes longer..

I am hoping he will start to put himself to sleep again soon though as it was just after he went to bed that we had our quality time with DD (nearly 9yrs) which now means she goes to bed a bit later, which in term time isnt really ideal but I dont want her to feel pushed out.

HTH

I can't recommend 'toddler training' by Dr C Green highly enough. It totally saved my sanity. DD1 would always make herself sick to avoid bed and had us reduced to crawling across the bedroom floor so she wouldn't notice us leaving!

The only thing you can do with a toddler that makes themselves sick is to have everything ready to clean it up quickly and efficiently and put them straight back to bed. It took about a week of CC and vomit cleaning but we now have three children (ages 5, 3 & 18mts )who are all totally perfect at bedtime.

Good luck!

thanks girls...a few good ideas to try there ta x