4.5 month old sleep trouble

[AleksandraSt]

Hello everyone. I'm not sure I'll get any responses, but I read Mumsnet almost daily so naturally this is where I am coming for help..
My daughter is 4.5 months old at the moment, and definitely went through a bunch of sleep changes (and may be still is?) , But l am starting to struggle now that it's still happening 1 month on.
I have 3 problems or issues with her current sleep pattern and I am not sure what to do:

1. early bedtime
2. frequent waking
3. refusing the last nap of the day

So I think most days the schedule of her naps is quite good- she has a nap in the morning, one more in late morning/early afternoon, one more around 2pm and then when it's time for the last nap around 4:30-5pm - she sometimes refuses it completely, just doesn't fall asleep even though is tired. She then gets exhausted and falls asleep around 6pm which is too early for our bedtime (I think) as she then wakes up 5-6 am for the morning. I know this tends to be normal for babies, however I would want to shift her bedtime/ wake up time by even 1h.
Currently, she is awake almost every 40min-1h (!!!) , and wants the boob every time, and she is currently fully awake at 2:30 am. Which is obviously a problem and I am getting 0 sleep. She has also just spat up all over me and the bed as obviously she's basically eating milk all night when she's not even hungry.
We are co-sleeping and she is exclusively breast-fed.

if anyone here has any idea what I am doing wrong I would appreciate any advice or help or even just knowing it gets better, please please let me know

thank you

She's going through a 4 months sleep regression, have you read up on if?

Apart from that, her wake windows are maybe too long. At their age they should be awake for no longer than 1.5-2 hours in the day? Sounds like she's overtired.

Finally, have you tried CIO method? Not for everyone but worked for us and the bub sleeps longer and deeper and happily gets himself to fall asleep now.

Such a tough period!! Our 4 month sleep regression lasted a long time 🙈
As pp said, look at wake windows and try and step away from feeding to sleep and slowly working towards self settling. You'll have more success with first nap of the day if you're changing methods as they're most sleepy.
I transitioned to shushing and patting his bottom whilst feeding, then in my arms, then in the cot.

Also get someone else without boobs to do it, when my husband started putting my son down he would sleep much longer stretches.

Lastly, check they don't have an uncomfortable tummy, might be windy from all the feeding?

Good luck, I hope you get through it soon 💓

Thank you for your reply @brookln

She definitely stays up too long sometimes, but I do try and watch the wake windows..

And no,haven't tried but heard about it- may be something to think about

Thanks for your help @Geranium1984

She actually very rarely falls asleep whilst feeding, we have now been parting and shhh-ing her to sleep for about a month? May be even longer than that. So that works well most naps and most nights... I have tried to offer pacifier tonight a bit more , instead of the boob, and it seemed to work.
Seems to make no difference whether I do it, or her dad, or if she's fed to sleep or not :(
But I guess we just have to ride it out and it will be over soon !
Thank you again