I have a sleep disorder called CENTRAL apnea, the one that everyone is familiar with is obstructive apnea. The brain doesn't get enough oxygen, just slightly less than normal, when I sleep. I get periods of insomnia also and then sleep more than normal. It's balanced out some now that I take meds at night to be asleep and something in the day to keep me awake. When I tried to fight it and wasn't treated after the insomnia nights or night when I just didn't get enough Oxygen I would be so sleepy I would fall asleep ANYWHERE, if I was standing up. It's not narcolepsy but the results are the same. The reason I am telling you this is I know A LOT about sleep. First thing I would do if I were you is make sure you get up at the SAME time each day even if you have a night that you stay up late or don't sleep well. It is also best to go to sleep at the same too, eventually maybe you will. You can take a SHORT nap in the early afternoon, but not more than an hour. This will be very hard to do but if you stick with it for a week you should start to see a difference. Also NO ALCOHOL, it just makes you fall asleep quick but when your blood sugar crashes a few hours later your awake again. No caffeine, chocolate etc, after 2pm. Exercise is important because it increase the "good" chemicals in our brains. Don't do it in the evening though. NO WATCHING TV in bed, it is for sleeping. If you wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep within an hour then don't stay in bed, get up and read something BORING, not your favorite book. Also the old warm cup of milk can really help because of the chemicals in it that help relax us. Another trick I learned is turn the clock so you can't see it all the time, I found myself clock watching and thinking about how I had to get up in the morning. This is common with insomnia patients. Try to deep breathing and relaxing exercise EVERY NIGHT before you go to bed, there are lots of tapes and books out about these. You need to clear your mind so you don't keep thinking about things. All else fails, Ambien CR is my friend! It doesn't work for me all of the time, but that may be because I suffer from chronic pain also. Of course you may need to see a sleep specialist and have a sleep study done to see whats really going on. I don't snore, but the oxygen isn't processed right, your spouse could never tell you this.Plus some apneas are mild, or you may not stay in REM long enough. Sorry to go on so long, I just feel for you. Good luck to all the sleepless out there, Hope these ideas help.

it wouldn't matter I'd still be up all night if I drank hot anything after 6 pm.

Keep a baby observation journal. Divide up her days into time blocks and write out what you do and what you notice about her responses. Just take notes for a few days. Try to cover a time period where she has a couple of later nights and a couple of earlier nights. Go back and check to see when or if she took naps or had different activities those days. Look for patterns you can work with. Ideas for helping a baby re-settle themselves are to go to them if they are used to that, and give them some verbal attention and touch. But, keep everything quiet and supportive (no gymnastics; to help them keep clear about 'bedtime' and 'nighttime' versus 'gymnastics time'). A basic problem with always letting a baby's own inclinations lead is that in human relationships there are multiple sets of human needs which have to be balanced. The adults have _needs_ which may rightly include 2 hours of quiet time for you before your sleep time. That is important for you to experience in order to feel rested and on top of your game, and to be the best mother you can be for your baby. Your baby needs you to be on top of your game. Maybe work on a transition routine with her for those last 2 hours. Help her wind up her play time. Maybe have a quiet hour of infant massage and soft baby bedtime music. Even for adults, the need for and ability to just fall asleep isn't always the same every day. Usually adults can figure out personal strategies that help them fall asleep. Or, they will have learned how to have their own quiet time in bed (reading, or thinking, or writing, or something else). Babies can slowly learn this kind of thing by having adult support and contact where needed, but not too much added stimulation. If you're going by feel, and in a pinch when she does wake up if she does seem to be very energetic and in need of some exercise it might buy some time to have her do exercises or something stimulating. Be careful because this can be confusing and can become a problematic pattern. But, if your sanity is on the line and you're at the end of your adult coping resources, it's better to risk the negative pattern (which can still be undone later) than to risk your having a breakdown. After the exercise, infant massage can help her (and you) relax and unwind. you can experiment with cutting out a nap, or reducing nap time (interfere with sleep time by about 15 minutes at a time because that won't be too big a change usually and you will notice pretty quickly if it's a 15 minutes she 'needed' or if it's 15 minutes you can rearrange in her sleep schedules)

I breastfed my son, so he was older by the time we discovered it. At 3 years of age, he was coughing and sniffing so much in bed at night that I took him to the pediatrician, who recommended an allergist. Removing milk from his diet made a huge difference, and if he accidentally got some, it made a huge difference then too. (More than sniffing and coughing.) The pediatrician said not to give him soy during our test month drying out period as about 50% of his patients allergic to milk are also allergic to soy. We took a few extra weeks to dry him out because he kept getting milk accidentally. So we waited to give him milk substitutes till later. He then used a soy substitute for his cereal and even liked goats milk. He is 30 now, and still quite sensitive to milk.