Well, I guess it's my turn...mamas, give me some hope!

LO is 9 months old, and she has always been a bad sleeper. For the most part, we have tried not to angst too much about it. It's been pretty cyclical, with bad and good periods coming and going around milestones, growth spurts, and illnesses. We have a one bedroom, so LO has always been close by us, and about half of the time, she's in our bed. She's not night-weaned herself yet. This arrangement has more or less worked for us to this point, but I fear we may have hit an impasse.

Last night, it took us TWO AND A HALF HOURS to get her to sleep. Both my DH and I were at our wits' end. We don't want to do CIO, and it's also probably impractical in our space. We have to do something, though. I've tried letting her play for a bit longer, to see if she'll get sleepy. That didn't work at all last night. I tried rocking with her, singing to her, DH read her a story. She shrieked and arched her back so hard that I was afraid I was going to drop her. We walked around and around the apartment to no end. We put her on the bed, in the crib, even let her by herself for a bit. Each time, she rolled over and popped back up immediately, climbing on whatever she could find. I let her nurse; she pulled off. I gave her a paci; she took it out and threw it across the room. Nothing was working. I ended up holding her in the dark last night while she flipped out. I tried to remain very calm and just let her get it all out of her system. I don't even know how long it took, but this finally got her to go to sleep.

I don't even really know what I'm looking for here...commiseration? hope? A suggestion of something I'm too tired to figure out to try? I really don't want to do this again tonight.

A few complicating factors:
*she has no teeth yet, but we can see some coming in. I know her mouth hurts. We have a rotation of Tylenol, teething tabs, and Orajel that we use, but it doesn't always work.

*DH started a new job last week (yay!!) but it throws a wrench into our evening schedule. I now pick LO up from daycare at 5:15, but instead of going straight home, we have to pick up DH from work first. This means that we don't get home until close to 6:30, and she now is in the car for an hour at the end of the day. Given that it's pitch black by then, she's been falling asleep in the car. I know that's throwing everything out of whack, but I'm not really sure what to do about it. I have tried to bring books and or toys to entertain her, but more often than not, she falls asleep anyways.

*Not getting home until 6:30 also means we have to adjust our dinner/bath/bedtime schedule. For a while, she was going to sleep between 7:30 and 8:00, but now, she's not tired then. I'm not wedded to a particular time, but I don't think it's a good idea for her to be up much past 9. Heck, *I* don't want to be up much past 9!

Sorry for the novel. I know in my heart of hearts that this is just a phase, and it will get better. On the other hand, a girl can only stand to watch her baby sob for so long. If you've made it this far, thanks.