My LO is 7 months old and has always been a good night sleeper and catnapper in the day. This has stopped working for us. She is desperately tired and grumpy by late afternoon and is now wide awake at 5am, although thankfully she will put herself to sleep after 20-30 minutes of babbling until around 6.20am. Unfortunately I do not manage to go back to sleep. She is great at self-settling and for her morning nap and lunchtime nap she will fall asleep by herself in her cot. As she is then so overtired by late afternoon, I put her in her pram to nap and will often need me to push her to sleep. I have tried leaving her at the lunchtime nap to see if she'll go back to sleep but she won't. Any help? I feel like I'm going crazy reading all of the different advice. I've tried shortening awake time, increasing awake time. It just doesn't seem to make a difference. Her room is dark for naps and it is quiet in the house. I've tried white noise but it makes no difference. I've posted before and been asked for more information so our routine for the last few weeks has been roughly:
6.30am wakes up and plays in cot
7am - I get her up and change her
7.15am - 7oz bottle
8.15am - porridge - lots of it
9am - nap
9.30am - wakes up (seemingly happy)
10am - 12pm - out of the house for one of our baby classes or at home playing.
11.30am - lunch and 6 oz bottle
12.30pm - nap
1pm - wakes up (sometimes happy, sometimes crying)
2.30pm - 5 oz bottle
3.30pm - 4pm - nap. Wakes up crying and so I spend fifteen minutes getting her back to sleep. 4.15 - 4.45pm nap
5pm - dinner
6.20pm - start bedtime routine
6.40pm - 7 oz bottle
asleep by 7pm
I really need some advice on how to extend the lunchtime nap and/or the morning nap and whether this could be the cause of the early wakings.