I seem to have given birth to a mini superhero, Captain No Sleep. He fights sleep (and has since he was six weeks old). Now we have got to the stage where he weighs 21 pounds and can't be held until he decides to go to sleep, or if you do have to do that, back ache results, and he gets fed up. Naps are appalling (until he goes down - he generally does sleep now once he's off). Bedtime is a bit better, but he wakes roughly every hour between seven and eleven. He wakes at least once during the night, and cries in his sleep at five-ish - screams - until he is rocked, comforted, woken up and cuddled. I am so tired of fighting him. I've tried leaving him to get used to the idea of sleeping as he rolls around his cot frenetically, but this has never worked - just leads to tears. I've tried pick-up, put-down, but that took naps into a new league of awfulness as each settle took over an hour and he was distressed and hot, and so was I.
Don't talk to me about spotting sleep cues. He can be yawning, rubbing eyes or ears and will snap to wakefulness the minute a nap is suggested. I have tried setting nap times so I'm not missing a window of sleepiness. I ALWAYS watch him like a hawk for snooziness. I don't take him out in the middle of the day so he can have lunch at home and then sleep in his cot. His routine is unwaveringly predictable.
Today settling him for his lunchtime nap took over an hour and had me in tears. And my husband and I are so tired.
What do you do?