Our DS (5 months) is doing a very similar thing at the moment. He used to go down really well at about 6pm and stay in bed until about 1 am for a feed and then he would wake at 5 am. That's all completely gone out the window now and I'm not sure why. We've started giving him some rice cereal to see if that helps but it hasn't. Everyone I talk to pretty much saya I need to start control crying him to sleep because he has bad sleep associations (ie. dummy, rocking, feeding, etc). I'm really nervous about doing this but thought I would give it a go as I'm massively sleep deprived as well and not really coping during the day. I wish we didn't have to do it but our DS doesn't seem to know how to resettle himself at nighttime so we have to give it a go I guess. Hope you find something that works and if you do can you let me know?
I am not sure if this will help, but with Cooper, we have a routine that we stick to every night, so that he knows that it is leading up to bed time. For example, he has a bath around 5.30, then he's breastfeed (and now solids), then bed by 7pm.
I noticed that he was also waking up shortly after I put him to sleep and someone told me to try not to let him have nap in the late afternoon (say after 4 or 5pm). So now, I try to keep him awake until 7pm. (If he is really tired, I will give him a 20 min nap or so). After a week or so where he knew what the routine was, when I put him into bed, he welcomes the sleep, and if he wakes in the early part of the night, I give him a pat and he will go back to sleep.
Could you try to maybe have a cut off time in the afternoon for day naps? Obviously, I am not meaning keeping her awake if she was really upset and overtired, but you would be surprised how they adjust doing it gradually. But I truly believe babies crave routine and like predictability.
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