We're dealing with that this week too. She clings on like a baby monkey when I try to put her in the crib. And CIO *IS* hard/impossible when she is sobbing, "Mommy, help me!"
The last two nights I've given her two board books from her bookcase once she's in a crib and it's worked like a miracle.
CIO sucks so much more now that she says Mommy. Fucking narcissist.
That may have also been the time where she tried to play us and would be all snuggly when we got up to put her in the crib from the glider. I'm like yeah, I'm on to ya kid.
So I would say "It's time for bed, if you need something, call for mama or dada. You need a good night sleep for X (school, swimming, playing outside, etc)." Reasoning with her seemed to do the trick. I would also say things like "you will see your friends tomorrow, blah blah blah" because she likes naming her friends from daycare.
It helps but it turns off after 45 minutes. Then the screaming starts again. Seriously, we put him in bed at 7:30 and he hasn't been falling asleep until 10:30-11. BEER ME.
I was going to Amazon Prime this until I read your last paragraph. I cannot handle 10:30-11. Now I'm going through the dark hole of Amazon reviews.
He keeps cycling through family members until he gets a response or switches to crying. We don't always do CIO, though, because he'll go on forever! We all get more sleep if i feed him quickly & go back to bed. Total time awake? 10 minutes.