Co sleeping and other sleeping troubles

Avni loves co sleeping. So do her parents! Oops!

Avni’s bed time routine used to have her drinking one full bottle of milk at the end of which she used to be flat. Now Avni doesn’t want anything to do with the bottle and I am in trouble finding a routine to help her sleep. Reading is a play for her so it motivates her to laugh and play. not a good one for sleeping yet. So, I hold her sitting on a chair next to her cot. But that has introduced another bad habit that she wants me to be there every time she stirs up. We have had few lucky nights that she slept like a baby(?!) through the entire night too, but that is the only thing giving us hope that she will be fine when she is ready. Waking up in between is a different issue to her bed time routine. She used to have her dinner by 5pm, little snack at 6pm mainly to make her thirsty, and milk at 7pm then she goes to sleep. Now as she doesn’t want milk, I should not make her thirsty, well I can if she can drink same quantity of water (as milk) or juice, which is unlikely. so no snack. no milk. Initially the bed time was pushed to 8pm as there is no milk to help her sleep. I have been worried that she goes with almost empty stomach as the gap is complete two to three hours after dinner. but now she has slowly brought her bed time forward that she goes to bed by 6:30pm now. you might think we are lucky, but nope. she wakes up around 8:30pm with full enthu and wants us to play with her… until 11pm. As I had noticed that co sleeping keeps her calm and helps her sleep quicker, i take her to our bed. She is calm alright, but lies on me, lies by me, and does something like namas thing for couple of hours before … well, I don’t know what happened after that as I had slept before she did.

She wants to sleep on my face! Anytime she stirs up and finds that her head is not on my face, she comes looking for me, puts her head on my face and sleeps! I move away leaving her head on the same place. In the morning, I find myself at the bottom of the bed and Avni’s head still on my face!

Daytime naps and the first part of her night time sleep are still in her cot which is what is keeping us not going seriously worried yet. She associates sleep time to me leaving her alone and her heart beat goes really fast when I put her in her cot. Sometimes  she happily goes to her bed, but some other times, she looks at me and cries for few minutes before starting her sleep time routine (that namas like thing). But then she is fine after that. I think I shouldn’t leave her to cry as suggested by the health visitor. I am following my instincts this time. Hope it works.

Avni is 11months and 11 days old.