8mo super awake at night

[N_Mom_S]

Hi everyone!
My 8mo angel baby has always been a terrible night sleeper (also due to GERD, she's currently on meds), but I'm convinced it's a schedule problem, especially since she has a very (quite happy) awake period every night, anytime between 4-6am (not consistently at the same time) and then stays awake for 1.5-2h. This has happened for many months so it's not new. She still has about 3-4 night feeds (BF). Her weight gain is very poor so I'm not planning to eliminate any for now.
She also wakes up around 30min after BT and I know that's OT, but I've tried so many different things regarding naps (longer, shorter, 2 naps, 3 naps...) and she still has many night wakings and that very awake period...
Her WU time varies depending on the night she's had so her daily routine is different every day. I wonder if I should wake her up at the same time every day? After a bad night I feel like we both need the sleeping in though...

I'm currently trying more or less 3-3.15h awake time. I sometimes need to make it a bit shorter if she's just taken a 30min nap before and is miserable. The morning one is shorter, I know it's usually the opposite but she needs it shorter, she gets cranky much earlier, I imagine because of the bad nights.

Yesterday it went something like this:

WU 8:30
S 11:15-12:45
S 3:45-5:15
BT 8

NW 8:30, 22:30, 2:30, awake from 6:00 to 8:00

Today it was different, she had an appointment with the pediatrician and her first nap was in the stroller:

WU 9:20
S 12-12:20 (she wouldn't go back to sleep)
S 15-15:30 (she wouldn't go back to sleep)
BT 8

NW 8:30, 23:00, 4:30 and now it's 6:30 and she's finally falling asleep after a little patting

As you can see with very different days we have similar nights so I'm at a loss. With a 3rd nap she usually wakes up more frequently at night.
I try to resettle (pat) at 8:30pm and it takes a long time and she just wakes up after a while anyway, until I feed her and then she stays asleep. After her long awake period sometimes I pat or feed and sometimes she self-settles. I'm not counting the 'dummy is not in my mouth' wakings  , those I just replug it and she goes back to sleep, but there are a few. She sleeps in her crib next to my bed.

Please help!!! I'm sure there's something I can do to help her but I can't figure out what! I'd like to eliminate the 8:30pm OT and get her to sleep after her last night feed.

[Katet]

Hugs, my first was shocking at sleep and it was hard. At 5yo we discovered he had a lot of fluid in his ears (but had never had an ear infection) and in hindsight I believe his poor sleep was medical rather than routine as my second had an all over the place routine and was no where near as bad in terms of sleep. So I definitely suggest talking to a Dr and a really good check over (although many GPs aren't good at spotting  fluid in the ears without infection)

Firstly when is she eating? As that may be a factor.
I'm also thinking the Dummy and suckking may me masking the GERD not really being as much under control as you think... because in my experience routine is rarely a big factor in really poor sleep.
One thing I found worked well with my second was really short (like 2 hours) A time, short nap then longer A time longer  then a short 3rd nap... My 2nd had what I said was low sleep needs on an average A time.
So at 8mo his routine was something like
W/up 6.30, feed
8.30 30min nap
Noon 2hour nap,
5pm 15min nap
7.30pm bed.

[N_Mom_S]

Thank you so much for your reply!
Did your son cry at night or show any signs of pain? Because my LO is generally very happy day and night (except when's she's OT, and that's increasingly more frequent). I wonder if she'd be that happy if she had a lot of fluid preventing her from sleep. She's been checked a few times and her bad sleep has happened for a very long time, so I'm inclined to think it's not that, but thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely keep an eye on that and ask them to check again next time.

Regarding her feedings, she's a tough one. I BF after every waking, day and night. And during the day about 1-1.5h after BF I give her solids (but in her bottle mixed with formula, she completely rejects the spoon and self-feeding, and her weight is so poor that we have to sacrifice good eating habits for now). After her second nap I do an extra BF, so: BF after she wakes up, 1h later BF, then bottle with solids before BT.

I'm confused about GERD and her happy awake period, wouldn't she be unhappy if that were the case? I really have no idea. In fact, starting today we're dropping the meds for a week as the specialist suggested, to see what happens and see if GERD is really the problem.

Today she woke up at 9:00 and she was so OT her first nap started at 11:00 (although she was so tired she could've gone to sleep at 10 if I had let her ) and at 12:15 she's still asleep so I imagine she'll do 1.5h. Did you wake your son up after his naps or did he do those times by himself? I never wake her up, only the few times I've let her have a late catnap in the evening because she was super OT. But then nights were the same or worse.