Anybody have a sleep fighter?

One of my DD is very tough to get to sleep. She fights it with everything she has. We of course have the witching hour where she screams until she finally sleeps at midnight but it's also for naps etc. She will cry and cry. When I finally do get her to sleep she wakes within 10-20 minutes of me laying her down. Even in her first days of life she laid awake staring at us while her sister slept and now that she's found her voice...wow...does she ever fight to stay awake.

Are there any tips for this? Of course I won't let her CIO just yet.

 

My DS is the same. Fights sleep with all he has every time. I have actually come to the point where I do just let him cry. If I have done everything to help him and he still is fighting I will let him cry. Last night he went down finally, woke while I was feeding my DD so I had to let him cry. He dried for 10 minutes straight, stopped for 10 minutes, started again 5 minutes later. By that time DD was finished so I picked him up, patted him back and put him back in bed. He fell asleep then. Granted - he didn't do as long of a night stretch as I'd like to see but he did sleep.

I wonder if he just needs to cry to sleep. It is a different cry then hungry/wet/etc. We also use a sound machine and a fan now, seems to help him. Without it things are really bad.

Is CIO bad for them at just under 2 months? If I don't let him fuss and/or cry he just stays awake and fights sleep more.

let me now if you figure something out! It is painful to see my DD alseep knowing that by the time DS goes to sleep DD will wake to eat shortly!!! AHHHHHH! The fun of twins!

 

QUOTE(jenniej @ Nov 19 2007, 01:25 PM) [snapback]502220[/snapback]
Is CIO bad for them at just under 2 months? If I don't let him fuss and/or cry he just stays awake and fights sleep more.

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Hi, I've read that it's too early to let them CIO. The pediatrician told me that I can let them cry for 10-15 minutes. I do think it's impossible not to let them cry sometimes. I'm home alone with them all day and several nights a week...there's no way I can help both at the same time, everytime so sometimes they do just cry. I'm looking forward to being able to let them CIO as long as it takes so that they learn within a few days like HSHHC says.

Sorry you are having troubles too.

 

My DD is a huge sleep fighter. She actually does pretty well for her morning and early afternoon nap, but the late afternoon nap and bedtime are awful. I know she isn't overtired as I put them back down after 1 hour of wakefullness or when they yawn, whichever comes first. It often takes 2-3 hours at night to get her to sleep, once she finallly falls asleep for more than 10 minutes, she does great, but it is so exhausting. We do the swaddling, dark room, noise machine, the whole bit, but nothing seems to work. At least her brother is a decent sleeper, I would lose my mind if they both fought so hard!

 

My smallest twin is a fighter, but mostly during the day. Its so obvious that he's exhausted but sometimes he will kick and squirm and cry on my shoulder hysterically until he just drops to sleep (sometimes instantly!). He's good at night though. Its a good thing because I just can't to the CIO method. My smallest has always been a little more high strung and panicky anyway so I just feel like he needs more comfort and security to sleep well. It seems to be working so far.

 

Have you tried letting her sleep in the swing, or even bundling her up in her carseat?? Mine slept like that almost non-stop the first few months. For the first 3 weeks after birth one girl would ONLY sleep in the swing, and wake up as soon as the music stopped (Damn FP for only making the music last 5 min! LOL) so we'd be sleeping next to her, getting up every 5 min to reset the swing ,and that's how she slept. Parent B would take care of Baby B...... After the first few weeks though she did good in the car seat on bad nights/days but for the most part did well in the PNP or travel swing.

 

MY DD is a huge sleep fighter. If you want to hear that it gets better with time, do not read the rest of this post.

She is 5 months and 3 weeks right now and still screams before almost every nap and bedtime.
When I say screams, I MEAN SCREAMS. Sometimes she plays first but mostly straight to screams. This happens whether I put her down at first sign of tiredness or last sign of tiredness. She screams louder when you hold her, she cannot be rocked to sleep, she will not fall asleep in our arms (or rest her head on your shoulder for that matter), she does not sleep in the car or the stroller.
SHE fights sleep like it is poison. She will start screaming the minute you turn the corner to go up to their nursery. We had to stop bathing her right before bed because she would scream thoughout the bath knowing that bed was next. We then started sponge bathing her and she would start screaming the minute we got the white onesie (what they were wearing to bed at that time) out to put on.
The ped said she just needs to blow off steam and does not require much sleep.
It is better now that they are down to only 3 naps a day because now I only have to endure the screaming for 2 or 3 times a day. She has also started to scream for a shorter period of time. It is obvious to me that she is not screaming because she needs something as she has to know by now that we are not coming in.
Luckily she has never gone much past 20minutes.
She literally did not nap during the first 2 months of her life. I would just hold her while she screamed ( I had no idea at that point that she did not want to be held). I would call my mom and say "It is 4pm and Lily has not slept since 8 am this morning."

WHAT WORKED FOR US:
They slept upright in their swings for the first 2.5 months of their lives. They had reflux and this seemed to help.
When we moved them to their cribs (at around 2.5 months) we :SWADDLED TIGHTLY with miracle blankets (google them - it is worth it) as DD was already too active to swaddle in a regular blanket.
: we also put them on their sides on inclined sleep positioners.
This worked for awhile - she would stop screaming the minute we swaddled her and put a paci in her mouth.

Eventually, they got to where they were getting out of the swaddles and she was spitting out her paci too much for me to deal with.At this point we went cold turkey with the swaddles and put them on their bellies. This seemed to work but DD would then knock the paci out as she tried to roll around and also spit it out the minute we reinserted so we went cold turkey with that as well.

And now we are back to her screaming herself to sleep. Somedays it is only a wimper for 3 minutes and sometimes it is a full on screaming for 5 mintues and sometimes 20. THE POINT IS: I have to let her do this because there is nothing else I can do. I have tried everything and nothing works so for the past month we have just let her CIO during naps assuming she would learn how to soothe herself. Apparently, screaming is how she soothes herself. The good news- she is now an excellent napper, she will take three pretty good naps a day. The bad news- she still fights sleep and screams herself to sleep and basically throws a fit when she knows we are taking her to go down for a nap!

I basically just pray everyday and hope for the day that we go from 3 naps to 2 and then from 2 to 1 so that I don't have to have my heart break so often throughout the day!

HTH
Amy