Our almost 7 month old has been able to self settle for naps and bedtime since about 4.5 months old. She’s always done a bit of powering down (grunting/humming) for 5-10 minutes, but it was working well. About 6 weeks ago, all of this went out the window whilst on a trip, and didn’t recover after getting home, possibly because she was ill and took time to recover. We started sleep training 2 weeks ago (taking Cara babies), and she has been able to self settle, mostly without any pop ins, and sleep through the night until past 6am with a dream feed. However, bed time has been messy. On a ‘good day’ she will fuss/grunt/hum for about 20-30 minutes, on a bad day she will properly cry for 30-50 minutes (despite pop ins) - the crying has been more of a feature the last few days. She has been fussier in the day too, but does fall asleep for naps within about 10 minutes.
I’m wondering if this is a schedule issue? She has always been high sleep needs, and we’ve literally only just managed to get her onto 3 naps consistently in the last 2 weeks because she doesn’t tolerate long wake windows. At present, we’re doing 1h50/2h/2h15/2h10 and she is always cueing for sleep at least 15-20 minutes before I put her down. I’ve tried to stretch the final ww to 2h30-2h45 but this led to 50 minute settles, and she was very fussy by the time she was being put down. I’d like a 7pm bedtime, but we’re really only managing 6.30pm on this schedule, and if she had her way it would be 6pm (but that feels too early for a 7 month old?). Nap lengths vary but she gets between 2.5h-3.5h sleep a day, which feels like plenty, but she still tires quickly!
Any thoughts/advice on how to manage this? Have I got her wake windows or naps completely wrong?