5 month old... won't settle passed 12am every night

[Gugu22]

Hi, my little one has just turned 5 months and has always been a struggle to settle she will only go to sleep around midnight (this has been the case since she was born)
Now it has got to the point she will only sleep around 12am - 1am and then wake up for 4am for a feed trouble is it takes us around 2 hours for her to settle again and she will drift back to sleep sound 6am and wake up then at 9am ready for her day.
Her day naps are short has around 3 naps throughout the day first 2 naps will be for 1 - 2 hours then the 3 nap will be for 30 mins.
We have tried to shorter her naps but she just gets cranky. We have also tried to bring her last feed forward ( which is usually around 10.30pm) but she will not have it and will still not sleep till gone midnight.
We have tried doing a routine of bath at 9am, feed, book and play but again she will still not settle until midnight. I'm worried she will never get into a routine as she has never settled before 12am, she used to sleep from 12am - 9.30am straight but now wakes up at 4am every night, all the posts I see about their little ones going to sleep at around 7 8pm will not issues, what are we doing wrong?

Oh it is bloody awful isn't it this sleep stuff?

My middle one was similar. She slept at certain times and then was awake during the dead of the night. I honestly could not imagine her ever sleeping. I tried everything to switch her sleep cycle so that she slept when I slept. She wasn't having it.

She settled right down at about 6-7 months, I assume because of food/weaning. She then started to sleep through and quickly became a solid night sleeper.

So please don't despair.

It's so draining feel like a zombie every day! I'm hoping it will pass and she will fall into a routine soon (being optimistic here haha) good to know we not the only ones who are going through this, myself and my husband just don't understand why she will not sleep any earlier.

How much total nap time is she getting? I think at that age my ds was having around 2.5 hours nap - 30 mins in the morning and 2 hours at lunch (he dropped his afternoon nap very early on).

If she's ready to drop her afternoon nap or is getting loads of nap time that could maybe cause her to settle to sleep late and wake up after a few hours.

She hardly naps, 3 naps a days short 20 - 30 mins the most she has napped in the day is an hour. If I dare wake her up from a nap she gets cranky and cries until she's put back to sleep. Today she has hardly napped :(