17 month old fighting sleep

[HannahW]

So... Bunny'sevenings go like this:

Dinner, play (outside if possible), bath, dress for bed, snack and hang out till she gets drowzy, read books with papa, want mama, read books wth mama, nurse, snuggle and rock, start to doze off, eyes rolling, BAM!!!!! fight like crazy.

And I am not talking the fuss for two minutes then goes to sleep kinda fighting. I am talking 10+ minutes of kicking, screaming, pushing off of me, hitting... She will not give up and at some point I cannot stand fighting with her anymore and we go for a drive to put her to sleep (she falls asleep nicely in the car).

This is how it has been for the past two weeks! She is done teething, so I know she is not in pain. And the really odd thing is that she naps just fine. Just nurses and goes to sleep easy peasy.

Wecannot keep going for drives every night. I HATE fighting with her, but I hate the CIO idea even more. Any ideas?

[kbrisson]

I admit up front that I don't have any suggestions for you, only sympathy. We are currently out of ideas with our 16 month old DS and although we try every night to get him to sleep using a few different methods - bottle (I am pregnant and my milk supply dried up so I had to go to a bottle), singing, laying beside him, rubbing his back, daddy walking him around and singing to him - we end up driving him around to put him to sleep 9 times out of 10. We aren't sure what to do. It seems that we've found a couple things that worked but only for a night or two and then they seem like useless tactics after that. I don't like having to drive him around to get him to sleep but it works when nothing else we try does and I refuse to let him CIO. So, you're not alone but I do hope that someone has some ideas for both of us!