14 Month old still WON'T settle at night!

[rosierosa]

Hello,

My 14 month old has always hated sleeping, she only started napping in the day at 11 months. Now she sleeps for about two and half hours - yay. This is in the pram, getting her to sleep in the cot is a nightmare. We have a bedtime routine, dinner, bath, bottle then bed. I can settle her in the cot for over an hour, which normally ends up sending me crazy as her dad is never around. Sometimes it can be longer. She uses the bottle to sooth herself, which i think is a problem. Now i'm so tired (as she still wakes up twice or three times, out of habit) i am letting her sleep with me. I've seen a sleep trainner through my doctors, who says cut out feeding her at night, which i've tried. I can't seem to get her off the bottle, she uses it as if it's a dummy. She says settle her in the cot, it all sounds easy and then reality of her not playing ball kicks in.

Help! Does anyone have any tips - or how long did people co sleep for? I don't really want her in with me when she's three.

Thank you

Sorry you're having such a hard time. We used a sleep consultant when my DS was about nine months and one thing they suggested was giving him his last feed before his bath, then a bath of no longer than 5-10 minutes and then into his cot within about 15 mins (into sleepsuit and a couple of stories). I think this helps break the feeding to sleep link. We used gradual retreat. For the night feeds we had to reduce the time he fed by a minute each night (he was bfing) - sure I've read with bottle fed babies you can dilute the formula gradually with water.
Hope something helps.