One year old hates sleep

[AutumnSunshine1]

My one year old daughter has always found sleep difficult. She never sleeps through the night and we have always rocked her to sleep. I have cut down her BF's to two (one morning and before bed). She has two naps a day, an hour each, in her cot Last week we started to rock her sitting down rather than standing up, which she is still adjusting to. Recently she has got even worse with fighting her sleep. While rocking her, she has started to scream, arch her back and push away from me. I'm not sure what to do about this other than say no, put her in her cot, walk out of the room (she hates this and cries), and then pick her up and rock her again on my lap. Have tried settling her in her cot, patting her back etc but she just cries to be held. At the moment, I feel like she is literally fighting me. I am finding it physically and emotionally exhausting. Would appreciate any suggestions on what I could try with her.

Try dropping to one nap.

Sounds like she wants to be left to settle down, it might be a few minutes is what she needs.
I would put her in her cot, kiss and go.
I would empty the dishwasher and DD would be asleep by the time I finished

If she's not ready to sleep, I would bring her downstairs and snuggle on the sofa for a bit. That way you can watch a bit of telly and she can look at a book or toy and it takes the stress away. Offer her a top up feed and back to the cot after half an hour or so.

Exactly what happened to my first DD at 10 months. Was rocked to sleep but it was getting harder & harder to do, she was getting annoyed and her night wakings for about 4/5. BF also. One night we tried for two hours to rock her off and it didn't work. We did controlled crying in middie of night as nothing else working. Took 20 minutes. Next night it took 5. Then she went to sleep on her own and slept through from day 3.

I thought about doing this but she still gets tired mid morning.

I hope that's what it is. I can manage to leave her crying for a little while but don't like to leave her for long. May be the only option though.

Yes I should have done this yesterday afternoon instead of getting stressed about nap times.

Agree with the posters saying it sounds like she's got too old for rocking to sleep. Happened to both mine. There comes a point when they just like to be left to their own devices I think. Also definitely drop the morning nap. Start by doing one big nap at like 1130 or something and gradually move it later as she gets older.

This is a good idea. May try it thanks.

She sounds undertired to me. I agree with the advice of moving to one nap, maybe try a 10 minute micro nap in the afternoon to tide her over to bedtime until she adjusts to the longer wake times. Second problem is the sleep association of being rocked to sleep, I think you'd see a major improvement if you could get her sleeping independently.

Hi OP, my nearly one year old just has one nap a day for 90 minutes- 2 hours.

She sleeps so much better for it on a night.

I'd honestly leave her in her cot and see what happens.