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Maybe she's going through a little growth spurt? Or skipping her last nap could be making her overtired and she could have trouble staying asleep..Like she can settle down when she nurses and has you to comfort her, but isn't really fully asleep..You know what i mean? I don't think you are doing anything wrong! And I remember PRAYING my LO would just go.to.sleep!! It will happen eventually...She won't always want to stay up so late.

For how long have you been trying to move back the bedtime? Going from 10:30 to 8:50 is quite a jump, and i think it needs to be done gradually. What time does her day start? That also affects bedtime.

We had the same routine as far as a late nap and late bedtime too around that age. Have you tried moving it up little by little instead of all at once?

Could it be the 4 month sleep regression?

My LO sttn from 1.5 months to 3.5 months, then the dreaded regression started. Ughhhhh.

ditto on the paci....I put like 4 in my lo's crib!

I met with a sleep consultant last week and another mom in the group had the same issue. She suggested gradually waking up earlier and earlier in the morning to be able to push bedtime up to a preferable hour. Good luck!

S never slept more than 10 hours at night, and it took MONTHS for me to work him back to a 9pm bedtime. I think some babies are just night owls Bright side, he is a GREAT napper usually!

I agree with trying to move it gradually. I was just reading about this in my no-cry sleep solution book. It suggested trying one of two ways.

1. reduce bedtime gradually by 15-30 minutes every 2-3 days. Pay attention to how easily she falls asleep as well as awake time.
2. starting at 6:30 pm, watch your baby closely. As soon as she starts showing signs of tiredness, put her straight to bed. At first she may think it's just a nap. Respond quickly so she doesn't fully wake up. Follow usual method to help her fall back to sleep. (sounds like you're already doing this one)

I'm not much help b/c my baby has always wanted to go to bed around 7 pm. BUT he's usually up for the day at 6 am.

I don't know. Sounds like a very similar routine to what we do and we have had a 7:30-8:30 bedtime for about a month. I think every kid is different. Audra goes down super easy at night, she does seem to need the pacifier though.

Maybe you could just stay with her until she is in a deeper sleep. When she starts to wake up, rub her belly, sing softly to her and just let her know you are near, but don't pick her up. I do that a lot for Audra's naps.

Babies that age need 3 naps + nighttime sleep & can only stay up about 1.5h before need to sleep.
So we just followed that.
He gets put down exactly 1.5h after he wakes up from each nap.
If he wakes from his last nap at 8:10, then I know bedtime is 9:40pm which means wake up time is 9:40am (my son does 12h)
It is our magic recipe.
Maybe you're waiting too long between naps? Meaning try to end her last nap early. She will not be happy. But then she will get put down 1.5h you woke her up from her 8pm nap and that alone will move up bedtime.

@PrincessBaby: Hmm...have you tried different types of pacis? My LO was super picky and would only take one kind.

I hope H gets on a better schedule soon!! I know it's tough!

Sounds pretty normal to me. My daughter is 5 months and she just started to go to bed between 8/9pm previous to that it was closer to 10 or even 11. She is just starting to settle into a nap pattern. I have twin boys who are almost 3 yrs old and I remember with them that a real nap/sleep pattern didn't emerge until 4 months and fortunately they didn't go through a sleep regression but my daughter did. We hit 4 months where we had a least one block of maybe 6 hours at night and went back to every 2 hours for a good solid week. We are back to a 6 hour block followed by 3 hours. Mrs; Confetti just did a blog post about naps that you should check out. It reminded me of the 2-3-4 method that worked well for my boys and I am going to start with my daughter.

@PrincessBaby: Have you tried soothies instead of pacis? I know A really prefers the soothies, and they are more nipple-shaped.

Ours has always been a night owl. We did start his day earlier to get him to go to bed earlier, but I hate waking a sleeping baby no matter what time of day. Gradually by a year he has regulated to up at 7am and bed between 8-9pm. We've just done a lot of trial and error.

@PrincessBaby: I have almost nothing constructive to add other than that we went through the exact same thing at the exact same age with LMW! We started her bedtime routine at 5:30ish and we'd be going in and putting her back to sleep every 30 mins EXACTLY until like 10pm. It was BRUTAL. Luckily there were three of us (me, Wagon Sr. and my mom) so we just took turns so none of us went totally bezerk. With just brute force we just did it for WEEKS. Eventually she had less and less wakeups (down for good by 9, down for good by 8:30, down for good by 8...) until she'd just have one at exactly 30 or 45 mins... then one day she just stopped doing it. She's 8 months now and every night is pretty much EXACTLY the same-- bedtime routine around 6, she falls asleep drinking her bottle and soothes herself to sleep in her crib with her lovey, wakes crying around 9pm, finds her lovey and falls back asleep. Sleeps all night long.

There is light at the end of the tunnel!! I scanned some of the suggestions on this thread and they all sound great. We were too tired and exhausted to even try any strategies... we just dealt with it since there were 3 of us to switch off. Good luck!!

My LO was a little night owl like yours at that age, and we gradually moved up her bedtime, watching for sleepy cues. She started with a bedtime around 10pm, then we moved it to 9:30, then 9:30, then she did a big jump to being ok with between 7:30-8pm; which is now her bedtime. It was a pretty smooth process (with some bumps in the road, of course!).

LO also needs to have her paci to really calm herself into a deep sleep. When she was too little to put in her paci by herself, she would cry when she lost it/woke up; and I would go in and replace the paci and softly stroke her head/hair, but not pick her up or say anything or turn the light on. I just tried to keep the room as calm and quiet and neutral as possible when I went in to assist her.

Things maybe to try: not swaddling her since she is finding her thumb to self soothe with, or swaddling her arms-out so she can suck her thumb; try the Soothie pacifier (it's the only one my LO will take, she refuses all others because she's bossy).