Please Help, I Am Desperate! 1 Year Old DOESNT SLEEP!!!

Do you lay with her to get her to sleep? My oldest was like this and I had to lay with him to get him to sleep. Worked for me because I could rest to. He eventually grew older and grew out of naps. I would do anything to get her to take a nap. Sleep breeds sleep. When you have a sleep fighter they fight even harder when they are tired. I used to also drive my son around in the car till he fell asleep and then pull over and take a nap in the front seat.

You have to realize that you work nights. Your night time is the day. She's going to have to go to child care or you're going to end up in the hospital from exhaustion.

People who work nights have to sleep! You need at least 6-7 hours per day minimum. Even on your day's off you need to sleep during the day so your biorhythms will stay the same.

This is really hard on you.

Sending her to child care will also help her with this. They'll work with her, turn out the lights, sit by her, pat her back, help her to start a good routine. She needs this, not only so you can sleep during the day but also so she can be around kids and see them napping.

I feel for you. I do. You are killing your body by trying to save money on child care. You are going to cost more to fix in the long run.

Sounds like you have an overtired baby who needs help getting back on schedule. My son did well with Melatonin. Granted, he did not sleep until he passed out due to exhaustion because of other needs he had, but I think for short term you should be okay here. When using it to recover from things like jet lag or severe "off schedule" sleep it is a good tool. I suggest you try half the suggested dosage the first time, then build up. This is a tool to help you fall asleep not knock you out btw - so a proper sleep environment needs to be created. Give the melatonin (we did so in water or milk in a liquid form) then immediately go to a darkened room where she will be sleeping, read a book sing a song (all softly and quietly) allow her to fall asleep naturally. I suggest using a touch at nap time and maybe pulling her in with you for a nap as a "treat." Personally with a little one that has sleep issues I found that co sleeping helped him sleep faster/longer/deeper.

Basically she has found a way to get her way. Make sure the room is safe, put her to bed, put up the baby gate and walk away. Let her scream. It might take a day or two but she will quickly understand the screaming doesn't work and go to sleep.

Another thought --- make sure she is actually tired. Take her outside to play, have her run and run.

3 hours a day. Bless you, and get some rest.
I would let her scream for 3 days and get onto a schedule.

I get maybe 10-11 hours a night even with a new baby, toddler who does not nap and is up at 6am (he plays quietly when he wakes, NOT in my room), and three other little ones. Sleep is very important to me and I go to bed when the kids do. I am up a few times to nurse, but want to wake refreshed each morning, to keep up during the day.

If she used to sleep I agree she's overtired. We used to have to hold one of my daughters down too for naps. She kick and cry and then fall asleep. You'd at least get to lie down... She would sleep and she needed it too. I'd lie with an arm and leg across her. I think she was older when we had to do this but id try it! Kudos for being able to get by on 3 hours but you need a break. Good luck.

My first child was impossible with sleep. It took him till age 2 to be reasonable about it...but he wasn't really a great sleeper till he was 3. I tried everything. EVERYTHING. He is very sensitive to things and he has a very stubborn personality. He gets overstimulated and never is sleepy at bedtime...he just gets more wound up. At age 9 he's still like this. But it's easy now, we can have him read in bed till he's tired. At one and a half there was not much we could do...warm bath, snack with milk. reading books in a darkened room, and snuggling was what I did every night. Still he usually was WIRED. It would take him a very long time to calm his body down. At that age he only napped for me if he played heavily outside and then fell asleep driving back home in the car. I can't believe you are living off of 3 hrs of sleep...I could not function if I did that. You have to find a way to get more sleep!

We used Ferber, it worked for us.

I've seen other parents use the following- bring a stroller into the living room, strap your kid in, turn on an hour long video (one which they are familiar with), give them a sippy of milk. you lie down on the sofa behind them and close your own eyes for that hour. You know they are safely contained, and entertained, they might even drift off to sleep. Either way, you get up to an hour of rest during that time.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

I agree that she is over tired.
Have you tried taking a nap with her? Just block the door with a baby gate so that if she wakes up before you she can't leave the room.

You could also try turning off the tv. Say, come 12:30p, the tv gets turned off until 3:00pm. I have found that when we do this trick in the evening, (tv off around 8:30), that my kids are ready for bed by 9-9:30p.

I drove my first around to get him to sleep at naptime from 1-2.5 years old, I figured out a way to transfer him asleep from car to bed. Otherwise he fought naps like crazy. I'm sure the experts wouldn't recommend this, but it worked great for me.