Weighted Blanket?

The only thing that is consistent about my daughter is that she's inconsistent.  She is not a particularly predictable child.  With my boys?  I  can always kind of gauge how they are going to react to certain situations.  With Finleigh?  There's usually 2 or 3 different ways she may react depending on factors that I have not yet quite figured out.  So because of this, sleep - as I've mention before - is tough with her right now.

It is not unusual for her to wake up 3 times per night.  Her doc suggested melatonin.  It helps a little bit so that she only wakes up 1 or 2 times a night, but hasn't really solved the problem.  So back to square one.  We're waiting to hear how her iron levels are because apparently low iron can cause sleep issues.

Brian and I are struggling to know how to handle this.  Our boys are both excellent sleepers and very rarely ever woke up during the night.  And if they did, we just put them back to bed.  Simple as that.  Finleigh doesn't tend to go back to sleep so easily and we are left with a quandary.  Do we stay with her till she falls asleep?  Do we let her cry it out.  Do we snuggle her in our bed?  All of these strategies work sometimes, but none of them work all the time.  Not one.

She's ruined two CD players along with countless CD's, so music or nature sounds aren't an option with her right now.

Having a fan in there would be a disaster, she'd have it taken apart in no time.

We've tried pitch dark or a night light.

We put her in really warm sleepers or cool pajamas.

Getting a twin bed didn't help.  I think it may be too soft.

Every once in a while, I kinda lie on her.  I get on my elbows and knees and let my torso press down on her a little bit.  You know, Temple Grandin hug machine style.  Last night she fell right back to sleep when I did that.  I know that seems odd and weird.  I am thinking that the sleep issue may be related to sensory issues.

So that makes me think we should try a weighted blanket.  But since she's so inconsistent, I'm loathe to fork out $150 on something that she may or may not like.  She rarely lets us put covers on top of her anyways, so I really wonder if this would help, but then she doesn't really like to snuggle at bedtime that much and will let me lie on top of her.  So, you know, it may be worth a shot.

A cursory glance online leaves me not really liking my options out there, so I thought I could make my own for her.  Any advice out there about how to use one or what works best?  I think right now just a heavy blanket would be our best option since I think she'd pull the weights out of one with pockets.

I'm not sure what exactly to do right now, but what I do know for sure?  That I would really love a full night's sleep again.

Ya, that would be really great.