Everything we said we wouldn’t do, we do. HELP!

[sthitch]

Our DD is 10 months old and getting her to sleep is becoming an issue. She’s about to start nursery so it’s crucial we do something so I’m looking for any advice. I’d even contact a sleep expert but when she’s actually alseep she will sleep the night.. it’s just getting her to sleep!

I swore blind we would never use a dummy but we have no choice, even my dummy hating Mum agreed after a night with the terror.

At the moment, she’s having two naps per day and it’s got to the stage where we have to lay in the dark with a fan on for her to eventually sleep, be put in her cot and then wake up instantly to be taken back to the bed/fan - she goes mad if the fans off. We have tried white noise, lullabies etc.

She will even refuse to sleep lay down in her buggy, clinging on to stay awake, I can walk her around for an hour when she’s tired and she will still be awake. It can take half an hour to an hour to get her to sleep each time and its not healthy.

We have tried putting her in her cot but she will just stand up and play a game, if we lay her down, she will stand up. If we leave her, she ends up hurting herself as she’s so tired. Rocking doesn’t work, leaving her to lay on the bed doesn’t work as she gets up... totally at a loss of what to do... any ideas????

My daughter was the same and it was a nightmare! I even got to the stage where I was looking online at toys that could 'help the baby sleep' in the end I just kept a routine and it took a while but I did the same evening routine of lots of playing, bath time, bottle while drying and bed (mickey mouse clubhouse song helped!) i kept on the same time everyday and it make take a while but it might be worth a shot it worked for me so fingers crossed!

I’m in the exact same position with my 11 month old apart from he doesn’t sleep all night- far from it! I spoke to my health visitor and they have said they can send someone round to help. Could you try this?
Her advice was basically they need to learn to self settle in the cot! Bath to bed should be 20mins and you stay with them to shhh to sleep! No eye contact ect and if they stand you leave them otherwise they think it’s a game! I haven’t tried it yet!! I really need to but I know it’s going to be very hard!! I feel like a need a miracle at this stage!!

I’m SO glad not to be the only one in this position. Anything is worth a go. The no eye contact thing may work in the cot, the issues I get is she will throw the dummy out because she knows it’s only for sleep and can’t sleep without it, and she will get herself into a state and hurt herself against the cot/try to escape but can’t fit through! We have probably left it too long because she is so knowing now, it hasn’t been a huge issue in the past as I’ve been off of work but now I’m back we need to sort it, but she’s very determined!!

Yeah I'm going back to
Work in 8 weeks and dreading it! I thought I was the only one too! It's good to know that over mums are going through similar issues with their children, my daughter is also teething now so her routine has gone a bit off course but hopefully it'll get back on track soon

How long has this been going on for?

I think babies go through little phases from time to time and often resolve the issue themselves.

But my advice would be absolute consistency. A GP advised me to do anything new in my DD's routine ten days running to give it a proper try. This advice has been brilliant and has made me persevere when at times I might have given up on something which after a few days has started working.