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I'm no expert on this but our LO has had nights like this where he is so tired but doesn't want to sleep. Have you tried starting a bedtime routine to help her start to wind down in the evenings? We started spending about 30 mins before bed in his room with the lights down low to get him to calm a bit before bed. As for naps if you need to hold her or find a way to get her to nap somehow for a day just so that she can catch up on sleep I say do what you have to do. Others may disagree on that but if you think part of the problem is over tiredness it may help to reset things). Good luck, do what you have to do to survive it!!

Gah, I'm so frustrated for you you must be exhausted! I haven't personally done CIO yet but I have heard sometimes the checks can just make babe cry more/harder. Do you think that could be the case with you LO?

@autumn865: Sorry you are dealing with this, I know it's awful to feel so sleep deprived and like there is nothing you can do to fix it. I've been there! I do agree with the PP that you should just do whatever it takes during the day for now to combat the over tiredness, if its possible. Also, I would definitely change your routine up a bit and do nursing first (20-30 minutes prior to putting into crib), bath, books, into crib awake. Unfortunately, it will definitely involve crying, but maybe she has a sleep association with nursing? We had the same exact issue. She would go down easily, but wake up 30-45 minutes later and then be up for HOURS, it was pure hell. Nothing worked. We finally changed up the routine, did CIO at bedtime first, and that helped. I always read what happens at bedtime will help with MOTN wake ups. I also read that any wake up really before midnight is most likely a sleep association problem, so I really think changing it up at bedtime will help! I think after you tackle bedtime and have her sleeping a little bit of a longer stretch in the beginning, you can work on other wake ups MOTN. Also, I am not sure if you are on Facebook, but there is a troublesome tots group page that I follow and I find them to be extremely helpful with all sorts of sleep issues. I think they did just recently change the name to precious little sleep though. I would look them up also and they might have some better ideas if you post this there! I love that website and the person who made that website (a sleep consultant) comments frequently. I hope it starts to improve for you guys soon.

We had some issues like this, but it was more during nap time than in the evening. I had to slowly transition out of rocking/nursing to sleep by rocking almost to sleep then laying him down and rubbing his back or something until he fell asleep. Then I would just sit by the crib and then I sat on the other side of the room and finally I started leaving the room. Eventually, I could lay him down and he would fall asleep on his own.

@autumn865: first of all, so sorry! Those nights are the worst. I remember a week like this when my son was about 4 months and it was misery.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a sleep expert or consultant, I just have read a ton about the subject and by applying what I've read have gotten my son onto a schedule of naps that last 1.5-2 hours and sleep from 6:30pm to 6:30am with no waking! Of course it wasn't always like this, it took lots of work and adjusting.

I would try putting LO down earlier. At that age the max awake time should still be 2 hours. And that is MAX! My son could still barely make it past 1.75 hours. I would disagree with PP who said not to worry about naps, without a doubt at that age sleep still begets sleep. So if naps are short (less than 45 mins to an hour, ideal 1.5-2 hours) it can be throwing the whole day for a loop, including bedtime.
Sorry if you're already doing this and I'm telling you what you already know, but I'd start with making sure awake time doesn't surpass 2 hours. So if LO wakes at 5am, first nap should be no later than 7am. If that nap ends at 8am, next should be by 10am. And so forth. Babies that wake up very early can end up having several naps in a day in order to make it to bedtime.
If you rush in when LO starts crying, try not to! This was a hard one for me but I did discover when I started waiting a few minutes that he did (sometimes) fall back asleep on his own. A big mistake parents make is rushing in thinning the nap is over OR to rock them back down. Many times it isn't needed.
Don't be fooled by the "keep the baby up so they are super tired" trick, it rarely works. Overtired makes it harder to fall asleep AND stay asleep. Which is what I think might be happening with those wakeups 40 mins into the nap or bedtime.

Try earlier bedtime. I know this sounds crazy, BUT If the last nap ends at 3:30pm...you might just have to try bedtime around 5/5:30pm! We had to do this for a little while and though it felt really unnatural, routine was a breeze as he wasn't yet overtired, he went down easily, and slept till the same time the next day! Bedtime at that age doesn't effect morning wake time that much! Meaning - if you put LO down at 8pm, she'll wake up at 6am. If you put LO down at 6pm, she'll wake up at 6am. Many babies have an internal clock of sorts which makes them wake around the same time every day regardless of bedtime. So if she is consistently getting less than 11/12 hours a night, it's setting her day up for an overtired mess.

Lastly - CIO. I know it's not for everyone but it works! I promise your LO will not harbor a grudge in the morning! That was my biggest fear, but he never ever remembers when we let him cry, he is happy as can be in the morning. If anything he may be happier because he got better sleep!
I used to turn the sound off on my monitor, shut his door, and shut my door. I would turn on music, TV, whatever. I'd glance at the monitor occasionally, but going in ALWAYS made it worse for us. Checks are not effective for every baby. It took 3 nights of full on CIO and it got shorter and shorter and eventually stopped.

Be consistent! With time awake, bedtime, CIO, all of that. Babies THRIVE on consistency and routine. It's how they learn and find comfort. The biggest mistake with CIO is that parents throw in the towel because they think giving in is "easier" than CIO. But with 8 months of 6:30pm - 6:30am sleep after just 3 nights of brutal and miserable CIO, I can guarantee it was easier than if he was still waking or not going to sleep on his own! It sometimes took every fiber of my being to stick with my plan for his sleep. (From staying indoors for naps to CIO). It's not just the sleep that will make you feel good. It's the FREE PERSONAL TIME in the evening. It made me a new woman.

There have been a few articles that have really helped me and I'm happy to pass along if you are interested.

Also, I have a friend who is a behavioral/sleep consultant. She didn't help me (I didn't ask because I felt weird), but it's her bread and butter and she does phone/remote consulting. I can pass you her info/website!

Big hugs and hope that even 1 sentence I wrote helps. It's hard and I feel for you!

Can you have someone else put her to bed? We found when we first sleep trained that I couldn't put her to bed, DH needed to. Now she will go to bed easily for either of us. We bottle feed at bedtime, and some nights she will fall asleep and not finish her bottle. Other nights she's awake when she goes to bed. But regardless, when she goes in her bed, we don't go back. She has a tendancy to "play" in MOTN, sometimes this includes whining. If the whining persists for 30 minutes we go in. That's rare, she normally gets back to sleep without help.

We didn't use a "method". We had tried CIO with checks at 5-10-15 minutes. Two nights and it wasn't working. We switched to DH doing the last feed and never looked back. That was probably 4 - 5 months ago and she's now 9.5 months.

I don't think you're going to like my advice but if it were me in your shoes, here's what I would do: Do your consistent bedtime routine, put the baby down in her crib, shut the door and put on some headphones or ear plugs. It will suck but she will go to sleep eventually and what you are going through sounds worse than any CIO to me, to be honest. I'm sorry you're going through this!

@autumn865: have you tried loosely wrapping your LO when she's getting that overtired? My big girl used to find being wrapped very soothing.

I'm not really a fan of CIO so I think I would do whatever I could to catch baby up on sleep and then work on self-settling.

ETA I just had another thought, maybe your LO finds the rocking too stimulating so could you try just "being the bed"? Do the bedtime routine, nurse baby till she's drowsy, wrap her up in a nice soft blanket / cloth then just hold her to your body while stroking her nose or eyebrows. Once she's asleep you could unwrap her and pop her in to bed (maybe try putting her on her tummy?) then keep stroking until she's in a deep sleep.

I'm definitely no expert with a DD who is still waking 1-2x/night at 10.5 months but.....she does fall asleep easily on her own and I attribute it to having a sleep consult and to changing our routines a bit. We had been nursing to sleep (or close to bedtime) and the consultant had me change it to nursing at least 20 mins prior to putting her in her crib. I also took away other sleep associations (pacifier, rocking, etc) and it helped with the night wakings almost immediately. She had been doing what your DD did last night, and is now waking just once or twice. I still find that if she is overtired or not tired enough, this can cause the frequent night wakings, but this is very rare now. I hope you figure something out and get more sleep soon!!

@autumn865: have things improved? I hope so!

I just checked in on our January 2015 thread and more than 1 baby has decided to party on at night time, including mine. It seems like 7 months can be a bumpy time.

Regarding stopping nursing to sleep--I still turn on the white noise and fan and have a dim light on when we nurse. I hope she gets drowsy, just not all the way asleep. Once she slows down or rolls off to look around, I go over and turn off the lamp, sing her a song, put her in the crib. She'll cry most of the times, but it doesn't last long (5-10 minutes?) She cried longer in the beginning of the switch, but I haven't let her go longer than 15-20. I'll go back in and nurse her again. last night I went after 10 b/c I could tell she was going for it and was not going to stop.

When I first started paying attention to the timing of naps, I watched the clock, not her. After 2 hours of awake time, it was time to try for a nap. I find that schedule is still true today.