10 Month Refusing to Sleep in Her Own Bed

Do you feed her when she wakes? She might well be hungry and going through a growth spurt. It's quite common the first year. Does she have a play yard she can sleep in downstairs? You might also try that. Look, whatever it (safely) takes to get you some sleep is what you should do -- whether it be a feeding, a cuddle, or a change of location. Chances are, this is just a phase. My guess is that she's approaching a developmental milestone and/or is teething.

Make sure she doesn't have an ear infection or congestion.

I don't know if you have tried the cry it out method. It has worked for me. My son is only 4 months old, but when he gets cranky I can usually tell he's sleepy if nothing else is making him happy. When I first started doing this, he would cry for longer...sometimes 10 or 15 minutes at a time and then I would pick him up, hold him, try to feed him, ect. and then put him back down in bed. He eventually went to sleep. Now that he is used to it, he falls asleep on his own and usually never screaming when I put him down.

It was really the hardest thing for me to do, letting him cry out all his frustration, but if nothing else is working and you know he's tired, than that is the way to go. Things are a lot easier on me being able to just put him down when he is tired and he sleeps so much better!

She might be afraid. My son slept great in his big bed, then suddenly wanted us to stay with him again.

He was old enough to talk, so I managed to work it out. He had been watching Thomas and the Magic Railroad (the one with Alec Baldwin) and thought Diesel 10 was hiding in his closet. We gave the movie a time-out (for years, actually) and he slept better.

I kept this in mind and when my second child had trouble being in her bed, I went back and reviewed what she had been watching on TV. We cut out Scooby Doo and everything went back to normal.

I made this suggestion to a friend and she did the same -- figured out which TV show was giving the child bad images (Scooby Doo again for a 2 year old) and cutting it out fixed the problem.

For a while, we also used "Monster Spray" (purple Lysol relabeled) every night in the closets and under the bed. That seemed to put her in control and give her some relief.

Finally, look around the room in the dark and see if any of the dolls or decorations give off spooky images. I remember someone who realized that a clown or doll their daughter had gotten as a gift looked REALLY awful in the dark and getting rid of it calmed things down.

Best wishes. I've been there with a husband working all hours -- make sure you get some sleep, too!