One year olds and sleeping

[Strugglingmum73]

I have a one-year-old who has always been a rubbish sleeper. I have lost sight of any sense around how much she should be sleeping. Currently I put her to bed around 730, if she falls asleep while drinking her milk I can transfer her to cot but otherwise she will scream even if I sit in the same room as her as she goes to sleep. If I hold her and rock her to sleep she usually just messes around and tries to climb off my knee.
She often wakes up around 130 and chats and messes around for ages usually 1 to 2 hours. I try and leave her in her cot during this time as she is not unhappy.
She is usually up for the day around 6 am. Naps are very sporadic and I can’t seem to get her into any routine at all with sleep. I’ve tried to do a short morning and afternoon sleep and that doesn’t work. I’ve tried to do a long afternoon nap and she screams about going to sleep and then usually wakes up within half an hour and screams to be out of the cot.
Any help and advice would be really appreciated.

Would love some advice on this.

Sounds quite normal to me sorry if she's happy in her cot at night I'd leave her to it. For falling asleep I'd stick with milk if it works. Ideally you should be brushing teeth after last milk but as long as you don't leave her with a bottle it should be fine. You could try to break the association perhaps by slightly waking her up before putting her down so that she's sleepy from the milk but not actually asleep. But if it works, don't knock it imo.

Half an hours nap in the afternoon sounds fune. What makes you think she is a poor sleeper? Or what is it you want to change? The early mornings can be a drain, will she doze if you bring her into bed for a cuddle? Do you have a partner?

It does sound as though she might be a little overtired. On average I think one-year-olds should have around 12-14 hours sleep a night. Is she 12 months or nearer to 18? As an example, my DS is 13.5 months and if he sleeps through (maybe 60/70% of the time) usually does 8-6, if he wakes, he might go straight back to sleep after some milk or will be up for anything up to two hours, but then sleeps in later in the morning. Most days he still has two naps.. will wake him after about an hour in the morning so we can go out (also have a nearly 3-year-old), then will have another 2-3 hour nap after lunch.

Disclaimer: all babies really are different.. I would pretty much consider him a 'textbook' baby , my older DD was definitely not. She never napped more than 1.5 hours at a time and it was often just 45 mins (until she went down to one nap). And she used to have 2-3 hour parties most nights.

I just don’t think she’s getting enough sleep. Maybe 10 hours a day, sometimes less. She often had dark circles under her eyes.
And I want to try and find a way to put her in her cot without becoming hysterical.