4 month sleep regression still going strong at almost 6 months?

[rhetorician]

dd2 is 3 weeks shy of 6 months. At first she was a pretty good night-time sleeper - waking for 2, and then quite often, just 1 feed, and sleeping 5-6 hours at a time. But our current pattern is something like this

7/7.30 wake
8.30 (ish) nap for 45 mins (rocked in pram)
around 11 will nap if in car or buggy, if not then a bit later: usually 45 minutes, occasionally 1-1.30
3.30/4ish nap, 45 minutes
bed about 6.30 (in theory) - usually awake about 45 minutes later
7.30-(usually) around 9, cluster feeds
11 wakes and feeds when we go to bed
2ish feeds
4ish feeds

the night ones occasionally she misses one..it's getting harder and harder to settle her for naps, and evening putting to bed goes on for ever, and my poor DP (who is feeding her) is knackered...she is still in a co-sleeper in our bed, and often feeds poorly in the day because she is so interested in everything else that's going on.

Is this is case for intervention, or will it resolve itself in time? I am keen to move her to a cot now she is starting to move around, and I also think she stirs and thinks it would be nice to have a little snack...

We also have a 3 year old, so the best laid plans sometimes get totally fucked up a little revised

I think she may be getting harder to settle for her naps because she isn't quite tired enough to go to sleep, at least not for a nap of any decent length. At her age she should probably last a good 2-3hrs inbetween naps, so IIWM I would be aiming to get her down in the AM somewhere nearer to 9/9.30am (depending on WU) for her morning nap & see if this gets you a longer nap. Her lunchtime nap probably needs to be nearer 12 than 11 & again you may find this gets you a longer nap. If you want to try the later naps you might need to go slowly & push the nap later by 5mins every few days to give her time to adjust to the later naps rather than suddenly keeping her up an extra 30mins-1hr or it'll probably shock her & make her overtired.

WRT the frequent waking - the first thing that comes to mind is: can she settle herself to sleep independently or does she feed to sleep at naps/bedtime? Frequent waking at night is a common consequence of feeding to sleep, because baby has not learned to roll over & go back to sleep when she wakes in the night - she has learned that in order to feel sleepy she needs a feed IYSWIM? If this is the case then there are various sleep training techniques you can use - from the very gentle GW or sssh/pat to the tougher PUPD/SS/CC.

Also - has she started on solids yet? The frequent feeding may also be a sign she is getting ready.

HTH.x

thank you so much omama that's very helpful. She is mostly fed to sleep at night, so I suspect you are right about that...not prepared to do CC, but might consider trying one of the other ones. Although tonight I went and settled her to sleep, so she didn't feed to sleep. She's a very sociable cheerful baby, so as soon as her eyes open she thinks it's play time...

She hasn't started on solids yet - she's 24 weeks now so we'll be beginning soon