Bedtime battle

I don't, as a rule, put Eloise to bed. Chris is the bedtime master and has been for the past several months once we realized that something that takes him 15 minutes can take me upwards of two hours. There is never any crying and once Eloise is down, she is out for the night. Chris is so good at bedtime that I actually experience anxiety if I have more than one night in a row of putting Eloise to bed alone. Tonight for example, Chris was at a meeting. I just got Eloise to sleep and it took me a full hour. And she's in our bed until he gets home and can transfer her into her crib.

It's not that I am a pushover, I have just developed a fear of putting Eloise to bed and she clearly knows it. I always start bedtime exactly the same way Chris does: a nice bath, some songs as she gets dressed, a bottle in her rocking chair and the soothing sounds of the Sheep as we rock to sleep. I follow the same routine as every night, but just as Eloise drifts off she pops up and starts chatting to me. Then she'll go down, then she's up again and the cycle repeats itself until one of us finally falls asleep. She knows that I won't let her cry (I would rather not deal with throw up) and that if she pushes me enough I will give in and nurse her. The little turkey has me all figured out.