Sleep advice

I've posted about this before. DD is 22 months and we have a great bedtime routine. She has her dinner, a half hour play, bath, a cup of warm milk, then she climbs into bed herself, we read three stories and within 15 minutes, she's asleep. This all happens between 7.30 and 8pm (with dinner being at 6).

She'll then sleep solidly until 11.30pm.

If DH and I are still up, she'll get up and come out for a conversation. She'll want to sit and watch TV, chat, play around. If we're still up, we take her by the hand, put her back into bed, offer her some water, and then sit with her until she goes to sleep again. If we leave the room, she'll cry, scream, shout out random words (puppy, mummy, you're okay, it's okay), until we go back. But when we sit with her, she'll just stare at us. Or she'll roll over and stare at the wall, listening for my tell-tale creaky knees to give me away as I leave the room, or the creaky floor outside her bedroom. If we manage not to creak away, she just KNOWS. She wants to sleep in between us. And that's fine and cute and nice, but she sleeps sideways with her feet usually wedged into my back, or her head on mine. So either way, no sleep for me.

I've taken onboard advice from here before, letting her cry for a little while, then go back, comfort her, leave again, etc. Doesn't work. Tried putting her back to bed until a certain time of night, then letting her sleep in with us. That meant that on Saturday night, I sat up until 4am. We've tried milk, nappy change, water, hugs, soft talking, and even yelling. We've put the porta-cot in our room and let her sleep in that, but still at 11.30, she's up and demanding to be let into our bed.

I guess my question is will she outgrow this? Or is this something that I need to try and "fix". She doesn't have a day sleep (if we let her sleep during the day, she won't go to sleep initially until about 10.30 and then is still up at 11.30), and when she's in bed with us, she will sleep all night through. Do we keep doing what we are doing, in getting her to bed at a good hour and then letting her sleep with us, until she is ready to stop? Ahhhhh, I don't know and the less sleep I'm getting, the more confused I'm getting.

She will grow out of it I'm sure :) I just let DD sleep with us when she wanted and she grew out of it. She sleeps in her own bed all night now or if she wakes up she comes in and sleeps with us for the rest of the night. I think that because she knows she can come in whenever she wants to then she doesn't fight sleeping in there iykwim?

Would she sleep on a mattress next to your bed instead to give you a bit more room?

Thanks Heaven. I haven't tried a mattress on the floor. I'll give it a shot, she might be having an aversion to the porta-cot now with the high sides.

I was going to suggest a mattress too.
From experience, yes they grow out of it, but man...right now I'm hearin ya!