How to get a 'bedtime diva' to sleep at night?

So for the past 8 nights I have incorporated into our lives a "bedtime" routine. How is this going you may ask? Well the 'routine' starts at 8-8:30pm every night and ends in me going to bed around 11-11:30pm. So we are in bed before midnight, it's going pretty good I'd say...or not so much. Back in 'the day' these sort of sleep patterns wouldn't have phased me, as long as I could sleep in for a few hours in the morning being most of my life I have been an 8 hour of sleep a night sort of gal...OR ELSE.

So our routine brings us to last night, and I am tired, our whole family is SO SICK with the worst cold I have seen in years and I just want to sleep. So I chat w/ my Mom and she says I was the same way as a baby and when Olivia is at Grandma Daycare she lays with her until she falls asleep...so I think what the heck co-sleep until that little...angel falls soundly asleep and move her oh so gently to her awesome bedroom. So Corey & I pretend to be asleep and "whaaaaaaa" says the little girl in the middle of our bed, I'm too excited to sleep Momma! So then I start thinking, what in the world does this little....angel want? I have given her a routine, my patience (to her face) and now my company and still she cries. So every night for the past 8 nights I pray during this vicious cycle 'please lord please give me the patience & courage to get through this phase, whatever it may be so we can move on to better days of happy bedtimes and a rested momma'.

And now here we are tonight, knock on wood...and I start the routine earlier because it is bath night and I have decided to use the Johnson's baby wash 'clinically proven to help baby's sleep better'...we'll see. So my little tullah is acting oh so tired and I decide we need to go with the no cry, no talk, no eye contact sort of bedtime...which means no story books just straight to business. After bath it is 8:30 and we sit in the rocker and I try to give her the last feeding of the evening, which she bawls at and pretends to gag and act like she is going to puke (she didn't learn any of this high drama from her momma) so I say (in my head because we aren't talking again until tomorrow) "OK baby, if you aren't hungry I won't force it" and she cries for a few minutes and starts snoring...loud. So I do the sleep test...a kiss on the cheek...no response, then I pretend to stand up...no response, then I do stand up...still no response, and then I lay her down...and out comes out a loud screech and I rub her belly and she starts right back to snoring and here we are at 9:15pm on a Tuesday night and for the past 20 mins my little babe has been sleeping...knock on wood. Could it be that she is overtired and I havn't started the sleep schedule early enough over the past 7 days? Or could Johnson & Johnson really be on to something here? Anyway: Mom 10pts, Olivia 0.

Which brings me to my next question: I am looking for a great parenting book, that touches on anything parenting but mostly getting baby to sleep. I am going to run to Barnes & Noble over my lunch tomorrow and thought I would ask any suggestions before I go.

So I am off to bed, hopefully for the entire night, but I figure I better at least get in a nap. Goodnight, sweet dreams my friends. XOXO Trish