To cut a very long story short my child has had major feeding problems since birth and suffered silent reflux meaning we were unable to lay her flat after a feed. She then had to be tube fed up until February this year and was still having bedtime feeds so we have always had to hold / cuddle her to sleep. The problem is that now she is eating correctly and is able to be laid down we cannot get her to sleep unless we cuddle her to sleep. Unfortunately as she gets older (she will be 3 at the start of October) and heavier she is fighting going to sleep and gets really distressed if we put her in her cot while she is awake. Some nights she falls asleep in my arms with no problems but other nights she is wriggling, clapping, giggling and anything else she can do to keep awake. I really want to get her into a good bedtime routine and be able to put her into bed to get her to sleep but don’t know where to start. I hate seeing her so distressed but feel the longer this goes on the harder it will be. She also still has a dummy, which is her only other comfort as she doesn’t have a favourite teddy etc and we really want to take this away soon, but want to do one thing at a time. We do bath time, story time etc but any advice will be gratefully received.
Ps she had an operation 2 weeks ago to remove her feeding tube and her sleep has generally been poorer since then anyway.