Hi there
For the past couple of weeks my dd (just gone 9 months) has started some bedtime/nighttime weirdness. Up until now she has been a great nighttime sleeper (days are another matter). Nights WERE dinner about 5pm, bath at 6:30, bottle, then in bed by 7 and she would quite happily fall asleep. No longer. Even though she is yawning, rubbing her eyes and shouting to get in bed once there she sings, chats,etc. which then turns to grunting/whinging which then turns to crying/screaming. If I go in her little head bobbles up and she smiles and chatters to me as she bounces around on her hands and knees. This can go on for an hour or more. I KNOW she isn't hungry, her nappy is clean and she is tired but don't know what to do as attention gets her all happy and excited but leaving her makes her upset - neither of which are conducive to sleep 
.
She used to sleep until around 7 AM - sometimes a bit earlier and very ocaisionally a bit later. Now she wakes up in the night - I hear her start to cry and then gets back to sleep for a bit, then the same again for ages. Pretty well every night she has also woken up crying and been unable to get back to sleep. I've tried giving her a bottle but she generally only has about 2 ozs. so she's not hungry, I've tried water but she has a good drink and then carries on screaming.
In the daytime she is all over the place but generally she has a nap about 9 AM for about 45 minutes and a nap in the afternoon of around 1.5 hours. Sometimes she has two 1.2-2 hour naps and sometimes nothing.
I have been letting her sleep later in the morning to try to make up for the fun and games the night before and during the night and suspect that it isn't helping but am not convinced that the extra half hour in the morning really makes a huge amount of difference either way.
What the hell is going on?? Any thoughts anyone 'cause it's driving me nuts... Knowing she's tired and listening to the nightly shouting and carrying on for (tonight anyway) an hour+ and knowing that me trying to comfort her will only prolong it. Is it maybe her bedtime (but she IS tired)? Or bedtime routine?
Reading this back it does sound quite trivial but to me it is quite difficult as I've really been struggling for her to get enough sleep due to her poor daytime naps and had found that the better she sleeps during the day the better her nighttimes are and the happier she is generally (which is my goal!!)
I appreciate any thoughts, comments, advice etc. as days & nights are horrible when she is tired/over tired AND she is so incredibly happy when not suffering from tiredness.
Thanks.