5 month old sleep battle 😞

[BeyonceKnows]

My 5 month old has never been a 7-7 baby. She's only ever slept after 11pm (but then would sleep until 8-9am with no wake-ups) However, he r sleep has been getting worse and worse.
She goes down for a nap fine (mostly). Either in the pram or in her crib with maybe a minute of crying and then fast asleep.
At night time though, she will not sleep. She'll sometimes sleep at 7PM but wake up at 8PM and is impossible to get back to sleep.
I EBF but have recently tried stopping feeding to sleep but have resorted to trying this again just to get her to sleep but she wont even feed to sleep. She wants to feed but fusses and messes and then gets happy then sad so I think she's overtired but I do not know how to get her back to sleep when she wakes at 8pm. I really feel like we've tried everything and I just feel like we've completely failed because we must have messed up massively along the way somewhere to have created such bedtime battles.
I really dread bedtime now, its upsetting me a lot. I wouldn't even mind the lack of sleep but it's the crying/fussing that's upsetting me... I dont know how to calm her except for letting her sit up and babble but then she ends up overtired.
I just feel like I'm no good at this
I dont even know what I'm after, maybe just reassurance that one day it might not be a battle...?

Possibly a late 4 month sleep regression? How long and when does she nap in the day?

I’m really sorry OP, sleep problems can become all encompassing - it’s really horrible. Everything truly is a phase and it will get better (then a little worse again then better again etc etc until it’s basically not an issue anymore!)

You’ve not messed up. Some babies are great sleepers and some aren’t - you sounds like you’re really trying so be kind to yourself. xx

Don’t blame yourself, you haven’t done anything wrong, these babies are tricky characters! Mine was a nightmare from 4-6 months, I cried on my husband most mornings when he was trying to leave for work because I was just so exhausted. Then it just started to get gradually easier and at 8 months she’s sleeping 12 hours at night (I’m sure it will change again at some point but I’m enjoying it for now!).
We did some gentle sleep training at 7 months which helped, as did moving her into her own room at 6 months and I think introducing solids helped too. Mainly I think they just gradually grow out of it.

Remember, this too shall pass! Take it one day at a time and just do whatever you can to get some rest when possible.

And whatever you do, if your baby ever starts to sleep through the night, don’t post about it on an Internet forum like I did because you are then guaranteed a terrible night of no sleep - like me last night

Hahah oh dear Yakkity, sorry you had a bad night but thank you (and NewMum) for your reassurance. I think our plan is just to co-sleep for a little while to take a bit of the pressure off nighttimes. It's so hard second guessing yourself all the time but like you say, hopefully we've not done something to terribly break her sleep forever along the way. I struggle with the lack of logic or reason and am always trying to figure out how to fix it but think I need to just accept that there is no logic to this right now and its likely just a phase.