Even a few weeks ago, bedtime wasn't a big deal. She was usually dozing in my arms within a minute or two and into the crib. Now, no matter how tired, it is at least an hour. What is the deal? I hold her like usual, and her legs start this sort of jittery kicking. When I try to hold her arm and her leg she fights more. I put her down, she just keeps kicking her legs in a way that shakes her whole body. She tosses and turns, but this is not settling. At first I thought it was, but she NEVER settles. Last night, tried putting her to bed starting at 7:30pm. By 9pm she was crying out of hunger because she hadn't eaten her bottle earlier due to be tired. But she wouldn't sleep, and kept doing the jimminy legs thing. We tried everything from leaving her in there to work it out (not crying), to going in and just giving the paci. NOTHING WORKS anymore! She fell asleep having the bottle last night, so now that's just one more bit of accidental parenting I can now say I've done. Tonight, she's had her full bottle, and she's still overtired due to poor napping. But she did the same thing with the fighting me, so I put her in the crib and left. She's kind of whining and talking now. I know she will do this for hours and not sleep. I will go in and give her the pacifier, and probably do this another half dozen times and another hour before giving that up and picking her up. I don't even remember how we got her to sleep the night before last. Can anyone give me some insight into what is going on? Even when she is well rested, she's still been doing this bedtime thing. Is this her way of exercising her rights? I thought they were too young to manipulate, but I'm feeling manipulated but I don't know how. Either way, what should I do? I hate holding her and having her fight me, but I also hate leaving her in the crib to toss and turn and whine forever. Then I lose another hour and a half of my evening stressing. What should I do??
