Can't get 11 mo to sleep anymore... HELP!!

[KentishMaid1977]

It's always been a bit of a nightmare getting DD (11 months) to sleep. She used to fall asleep at the breast, but that very rarely happens these days, so I have to hold her and sway until she's asleep, then put her in the cot. I've tried putting her down "drowsy but awake" but all that happens is that her eyes ping open and she starts either playing in her cot (even with no toys in there, she still finds the edge of the sheet fascinating!) or starts crying.

Recently it's been taking literally hours to get her to sleep, even with holding/swaying. The other night my husband and I took it in turns for almost 3 hours before she fell asleep. She was so relaxed and sleepy and her eyes kept slowly opening and closing, but she just wouldn't fall asleep! Every 15 minutes or so we'd try putting her down as she was soooo sleepy, we were sure she'd be able to fall asleep by herself, but her eyes immediately pinged wide open and she started going for a crawl around her cot to see what she could find to play with. We did try leaving her to it, to see if she would fall asleep, but after 10 mins or so, she started to cry out for us. Not wanting to do CC or CIO, we went back to her and started the process over again. Eventually my husband managed to get her to sleep by rocking, probably because she was so exhausted (as were we!). That was the worse night, but it's been pretty much the same every evening for the last week or so (plus we've been having lengthy middle-of-the-night wakings too).

What can I do?? I'd love to be able to put her down "drowsy but awake" but it doesn't seem to work with DD!

We are in an almost identical situations with DS. He does not feed to sleep for naps or to go to bed at night, but needs loads of holding and rocking and then wakes up 3-4 times at night for a BF. We have not had a 3-hour stint like yours, but there were a few 2-hour ones, with the closing-opening eyes and all that. I haven't got any real advice, but when you leave your DD in her cot and she starts crying, leave her alone for 5-10 mins. I don't think it constitutes CC or CIO as it is not really long, but it might be long enough for her to knock herself out. She just might be an intensely curious baby and your presence, although she wants it for comfort, is keeping her awake. This worked with our DS a couple of times (unfortunately only a couple), but your DD may be more cooperative. Also leaving our DS to cry for a few minutes (no more than 5) often helps him to "get the message" and he falls asleep faster when we rock him afterwards. God, I really just want some normal sleep!

Going through something very similar too. DS (11 month) breastfed to sleep until he was 5 months and since then it has been a almost daily battle to get him to to sleep!

I look for tired signs in the day for his two naps -usually increased iratability and rubbing of eyes- and put him his cot awake. Initially this led to lots of crying but I left him for 5 mins then went in, laid him down, and left the room. I repeated this as often as I needed to. He now goes to sleep without me having to go back in 9 times out of 10.

This is the same for when I put him down for the night but I am now trying to sort out middle of the night wakings! If he wakes up after 3.30am it takes forever to get him back to sleep.

I did find that staying in the room with him made him worse with screaming and crying lasting for over an hour.

I'd leave her for a bit too, the first few times I put DD in cot awake she was thrilled at the novelty an carreered around for 20 mins. Then started crying but it was only 10mins, then 7 the next and now not usually more than 2, zero when she's not over-tired. Good luck

I would suggest putting her down and leaving her to play and roll about. If she starts crying leave for a minute just to see if she settles then if not go back lay them down then out again. Leave maybe 2 mins then go back and repeat . My ds sleeps v well but is worse if he can see me and cries for my attention. He's been in his cot now for half hour and is happily talking to himself. If he saw me he would stand up and cry for me to pick him up even though he's tired.