My 6-month-old has never fallen asleep independently besides in her car seat. Every nap and bedtime is a fight. She does have reflux that she’s medicated for. She seems like she doesn’t want to be held to be put to sleep. She wiggles and moves so much. I’ve tried to lay her down in her crib so she can get comfortable but sleep never comes. She just gets slap happy and then overtired. Every bedtime is a 2+ hour ordeal. And no, this isn’t sleep regression because I’ve been dealing with it for months. Doesn’t matter what we try or do; she’s miserably tired 60% of the day, and I’m there with her. I miss the newborn days when she actually slept. 
I’m so sorry, my son was like this except he didn’t even have reflux to blame it on! It’s exhausting, it’s so easy to get emotional when you’re sleep deprived and just want the best for your baby. My son has always been a contact sleeper, but I will say he’s gotten better at staying asleep once he finally falls asleep. Do you co-sleep? How is the sleep environment?
@Ann
Maybe I should’ve worded better…she does sleep! But getting her there is a huge deal. She will squirm and pinch and scratch and wiggle. She will fling herself out of my arms almost lol so in my head I’m thinking she wants to be put down to sleep. Nope! She sleeps throughout the night most nights. But I feel like half my day is trying to get her to sleep. She contact naps almost every single nap and we’ve co-slept since around 2 months.
Edited to add - she takes 3 naps a day. Sometimes they’re 30 minutes. Sometimes they can be 2 hours which is where I will cap it. She was going to bed at 7 PM but with the time change, it’s around 6 now. But I won’t be able to lay her down and leave the room until 7:00-7:30-8 PM. I will sit and rock her for hours. My arms are jello!!! 
She is very visibly tired - rubbing her eyes and generally so crabby! But can’t get to sleep without my help, but also doesn’t want my help!!!
My girl was like this for the longest time, finally my husband put her in the crib at bedtime and held her arms and head until she just passed out. We started doing this every night and now she just goes to sleep after a few minutes. Baby steps.
@Sky
Did she cry? Ours gets so angry if we ‘restrict’ her lol
But she is much older too.
Dallas said:
@Sky
Did she cry? Ours gets so angry if we ‘restrict’ her lol
But she is much older too.
She would fuss for sure, but we’d keep our face close to hers and kinda breathe on her… weird sounding I know but I think it made her think we were still holding her close. We’d do this for like 10-15 mins and eventually she’d go down. It also gets quicker the more they do it.
@Sky
Sometimes I have to restrict her 
I will almost swaddle her because sometimes she’s so overtired that her body just won’t stop moving and twitching and it keeps her up!
Linden said:
@Sky
Sometimes I have to restrict her
Yes! When my girl is fussing her hands are in her face and eyes making it worse, we hold her arms gently so when she goes with full force to lift them, we guide them back down, she gets the hint eventually and just stops.
That’s so tough. Have you started solids? My baby’s reflux improved a lot with solids and within a month or two was gone. Got my fingers crossed for you.
Lior said:
That’s so tough. Have you started solids? My baby’s reflux improved a lot with solids and within a month or two was gone. Got my fingers crossed for you.
We have introduced a couple of foods! She hasn’t really eaten much, just played. She seemed to like oatmeal and peaches the other day but had a huge throwing up spell a couple of hours later, so now I’m worried about that. We’re talking to her Dr. at her appointment to see what he thinks!
Lior said:
That’s so tough. Have you started solids? My baby’s reflux improved a lot with solids and within a month or two was gone. Got my fingers crossed for you.
I’m praying my baby’s reflux gets better when we start solids in a few months. It’s no fun for him throwing up all the time, or for me being thrown up on!
@Milo
Reflux was so tough! It was such a relief when it got better. I hope it gets better with solids for your baby too!
I’m sorry that is so hard 
The only thing that works for me when she has the wiggles before bed was the carrier 
I keep hearing it gets better but I’m not sure when that is.
I honestly never really tried to make my kid sleep independently lol it just did not look like a battle I was likely to win. He falls asleep when he feels like it, which thankfully is at a reasonable hour most nights, and I go to sleep after that, then I wake up every 2-3 hrs, feed him back to sleep and then keep it pushing. His crib is beside my bed so I don’t really even have to get up.
@Val
This is what we did with our now 3-year-old and current 6-month-old. Saves stress and we don’t have any problems putting the 3-year-old to bed now. Goes to bed and sleeps all night.
@Val
I feel so sad for people who have to go back to work and feel like they have to sleep train. I would hate trying to make my baby sleep on his own every night and for every nap. We co-sleep and contact nap and I feel like I won the lottery with the amount of sleep I typically manage to get, considering he’s only 3 months old.
@Milo
The four-month sleep regression is coming 
We did sleep training with our little girl. I found it much harder than my partner did. She was OK with her letting her cry a bit throughout the night. But now she’s a little angel when being put down. We basically just keep the exact same routine and then just put her in the cot and that’s her done. Obviously, she wakes every now and then for a bottle, but that’s just a quick 15 mins in the night.
@Wynn
Sleep training. Check out r/sleeptrain for more info.
My son is three and has never fallen asleep on his own, not one time. He rarely sleeps past 4:30 AM still, and at 38 lbs, I’m still rocking him to sleep every nap time and bedtime. He fights it too. Sometimes violently. After refusing for several doctors’ visits, we finally gave in and started using melatonin and OMGGGGG. He still can’t sleep through the night, but getting him to sleep now requires two books and one song while I rock him and he’s OUT. It’s life-changing to get those hours back that we were spending trying to lay him down.