# At wits end - 19 month old fights sleep



## mightymoo (Dec 6, 2003)

We are just getting so fed up with this! My 19 month old just fights sleep. We are tired of the hours of trying to get him to sleep every night. He wakes up around 8am, I have no control over his napping - we have to drive about 25-30 minutes total to drop DD off at school at 12:30, so he usually falls asleep during that drive. IF he falls asleep at the end of teh drive, I can sometimes transfer him to the bed and he'll have a good nap, otherwise he wakes up and will not go back to sleep (or I sit in the car with him and he naps for maybe an hour). If he doesn't falls asleep sometimes he then takes a short nap on the return drive to pick DD up.

However, every night seems to be the same. We put DD to bed around 8:30 and work on getting DS to bed - generally we can't get him to sleep until 10 or 11, sometimes we give up and just go to bed ourselves with him still awake. He is no longer nursing, so we generally rock him to sleep. If we try to lay down with him the result is the same. He squirms around and will not sit still and be rocked (or lay down) unless you physically restrain him while he screams and arches his back. If you let him do what he wants, he just gets down and walks around. Even if he's exhausted, its the same, except of course he's more cranky and irrational. Even when he will stay still and let you rock him, it can be hours before he falls asleep.

We are just so tired of this! We are angry and upset every night, rocking him isn't the pleasant wonderful bonding experience we'd love it to be - he literally fights it all the way. I need some suggestions. We already got him to sleep once tonight and he woke up after being put down and refused to go back to sleep. Now he's sitting in his father's arms in the rocking chair wide awake, with his father asleep. I'm tired of our whole evening being consumed with trying to get him to sleep! ARG!!!


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## MBA (May 22, 2005)

hugs, mama....my dd is the same age and hates to go to sleep too. For us, nighttime is a little better than naptime, but she will only fall asleep if in thecar or stroller for nap. Hoping there are some suggestions in here.....


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## mightymoo (Dec 6, 2003)

Today I tried getting up earlier, since we sleep in so late because of course he goes to bed so late. It was difficult to even wake him by 7:45am (and myself of course), MAYBE if I get him awake every morning at 7 we can shift him, but he definitely sleeps less at night than my DD who is almost 4! I dunno what to do!

Not to mention that my entire night was disturbed by being kicked and poked and prodded by the two of them, so I got very little good sleep. I feel that I cannot continue cosleeping this way, but I'm not sure what to do about it, since arguing with my 3.5 year old in th emiddle of the night about where she can sleep only wakes the 19 month old up. ARG.


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## aaronsmom (Jan 22, 2007)

I have this same problem with my 10 month old. I've never encountered a solution so every night is a fight for sleep. All I can say is hopefully it is a phase that will pass. The way I figure, my ds is so busy learning about his world that he doesn't want to miss out on anything by sleeping. It can be very frustrating, though.


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