Toddler bedtime routine inspiration please!

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My DD (23months) responds really well to set routines. I had bedtimes pretty sorted; I could put her in the cot and she'd go off to sleep quite easily.

However, I stopped our last evening breastfeed a few weeks ago and since then she's found it really hard to get sleepy so she (and me!) have been spending upwards of an hour bouncing around the cot/singing/reading/playing with teddies etc. She's getting overtired and frustrated and it's also making her wakeful in the night too.

I had assumed I could replace the breastfeed part of our routine with cuddles but that just hasn't worked. I think she gets bored by a long cuddle and a short cuddle just doesn't relax her enough.

So, I figure I need to come up with a new routine that i stick to as much as possible and hope that replaces our old routine and ends with her feeling sleepy the way our old routine did.

Would love to hear any ideas. Currently we do bath, upstairs to bedroom, PJs, choose a cuddly toy, stories, then into cot.

Thanks in advance.

Does she get milk at bedtime?

No. She can't drink cows milk (allergy) and has never really taken like milk alternatives as an actual drink so she doesn't have cups of milk ever. I wondered if I should try and introduce something like that at bedtime but then worried about teeth and didn't take the idea further...

Music? If you maybe play the same stuff (choose something you like!) every night it could eventually become a ‘time to sleep’ trigger. And could make a boring cuddle less boring. I wouldn’t choose action songs, or even sing-a-long songs. Just chilled songs.

Personally, I would give a cuddle and persevere with getting her to settle off in the cot on her own. If she's not upset, then just leave her to have a play around in the cot. She's at the age really where you don't want to introducing anything else to help her settle off to sleep. She will get there eventually. You just have to accept its going to take a while to get back to where you were before. But you will get back there.

Also, I'm going to suggest if she doesn't settle straight away, could you consider moving her bedtime back a little bit, so that she can have some quiet time playing in her room before bed to wind down perhaps?

Yep music. We had a bedtime cd which had such gems as weewillie winkie, rock a bye baby and how many miles to Babylon. DH was always asleep by the third song. (Not a typo!)