how do you say
 

How would I say to my Japanese mother-in-law the following sentence in Japanese?

' I tried to make my daughter go to sleep last night.'

If I am not mistaken, the verb 'neru' to sleep would be conjugated 'ne+saseru' (to make to go to sleep).

I therefore said something like, " Kino no yoru, Hana-chan ni nesasete mimashita, shikashi, ijijikan, nemurimasen deshita' Last night I tried for an hour to get my daughter Hana to sleep but she did not fall asleep until one hour later.

Paul

In this case, you would use nekaseru.
So, to keep most of your sentence intact - I would change it to something like "Kinou no yoru, Hana-chan wo nekasete mimashita ga, ichijikan nemurimasen deshita."
It it grammatically correct, but still sounds unnatural.

*I* would say "Kinou Hana-chan wo nekaseru ni ha ichijikan mo kakarimashita." to express a similar sentiment.

Thanks a lot Nyororin.

Paul