Fighting sleep?!

Question

My girl is 14 months old and nap/bed time is my least favourite time of the day 😓 she fights sleep like she’s fighting a war. She’d threw tantrums, do some somersault, head stand, start banging her head around. Our doctor said she is a very hyper active baby and she gets over stimulated easily.
We’ve tried almost every method there is to try to get her to sleep. Those method worked but only for awhile, and then it becomes worthless. Our goal is to always keep her calm before bedtime but the moment she’s about to shut her eyes, she’d wake up and start crying out loud and throw a tantrum. But when she sleeps, she could sleep up to 8-12 hours straight. It’s just the struggle of putting her to bed is starting to be unbearable. Anyone in the same boat and found a permanent solution?

Answer

I’m sorry! That sounds really difficult to deal with. My daughter is not doing all of that, but she does cry (hard) or yell for me for 15-30 minutes almost every time we put her down for a nap or to bed for the night. We did CIO at about 6 months and everyone said that their baby learned to self soothe after a few weeks, but not ours! We know she’s okay - not hungry or wet, so we try not to stress out about it. My husband is better at ignoring it than I am. I often jump in the shower or something so that I don’t have to listen, because it’s hard for me to listen to her cry. I spoke with her pediatrician a few months ago and he said that some babies just have a hard time winding down, so we do the same things you are (story time, white noise, dark room, etc.). I guess if my daughter were hitting her head or doing things like that, I’d probably just make sure the environment she’s in is safe so that she can’t hurt herself. My daughter also sleeps up to 12 hours at night, so she’s definitely capable of putting herself to sleep. The only other thing I’d suggest is taking another look at her schedule to see if it’s possible that she’s over tired or not tired enough. I know that sometimes my daughter is just not ready to sleep (and could easily not nap all day and be fine), but I’m currently working from home due to COVID and I really need a few hours a day to work without interruptions. My husband and I decided that it’s good for her to have “quiet time”, even if she doesn’t sleep during the day. After all, that’s what would happen if she were at daycare.  Good luck. I hope this is something she grows out of soon!

Fighting sleep?!

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