Help! Putting my 14month old to bed is turning into a huge battle....

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It's never been very easy to get DD to go to bed, once she's asleep it's fine but for some reason she hates being put into her cot in the evenings. Weirdly she doesn't seem to mind during the day and is fine with naps. The problem seems to be getting worse and now she just screams as soon as we put her into her cot and then usually screams on and off for about an hour - nothing we do, apart from picking her up and cuddling her seems to help and she always starts screming again once we put her back into her cot. I'm now finding myself dreading the evenings plus both DH and I are getting stressed by it so by the time she finally goes to sleep we're both really grumpy.

Any advice would be v welcome!

could you put her in the cot and then read her her bedtime story or lullaby whatever you normally do but in the cot so she relaxes herself.

I have very similar situation with my 14 month DD, she BF to sleep when younger which might have made it more difficult now? I have tried Gradual Retreat very unsuccessfully, as soon as I move an inch away from the cot (I lean over it for ages, patting, shushing, which she seems to like, but my back doesn't!) she gets up and starts crying. I have tried to ignore it for several minutes, up to 5 maybe, but then I wonder if that's worse for her, is it like torture if she can see me sitting there ignoring her? And I can't see how it's much different from CC. DH is in favour of trying CC, or at least coming out of room if only for a minute or two, and repeating until she goes to sleep. I suppose I could try it, although I did think I didn't want to go down that road. She seems to sleep much better (for her lunch nap) with the person who looks after her 2 days a week while I'm at work, apparently nods off after about 10/15 mins and sleeps for 2.5 hours! (She doesn't do that with me, but then maybe I fuss around too much.) I think probably she was left to cry for the first few days, so maybe that's what works, and she doesn't seem to be at all upset by it, is very happy to see the childminder when she comes. I will try reading to her in her cot, she normally sits on my lap, worth a go. Sorry, I seem to have hijacked your post, hope we both find something that works!