Cranky in late afternoon no matter what

[cwolff]

Even when DD gets a good long afternoon nap, it seems that she still gets cranky in the evening.  I'm not sure why this is.  She never seems to nap well both in the morning and afternoon, but lately she's been taking a nice morning nap and a 1 hour or 45 min catnap in the afternoon.  Even when this is later, like 3pm or 4pm and she's up till bedtime of 7:30pm, she still is rubbing her eyes almost from the moment she gets up.  I have tried everything to even out her naps.  Longer awake times, shorter awake times, more stimulation, less stimulation.  I am only human and I have just decided that 2 great naps is in the future for us.  Anyone else have a cranky late afternooner?  And what do you do about it?  Just for reference, her schedule goes something like this:

Awake 7-7:30am
E Bottle 8am
A
E Solids 9am
S 10

Awake 12pm
E 12:30pm
A
E Solids 1:30pm
Sleep 2:30-3pm

Sometimes get 1hr or more, lately been getting 45min

Awake 4pm
E 4:30pm
A
E Solids 5:30pm
A Bath 6:30pm
Bottle 7pm
Bed 7:30pm

Though she has been sleeping better in the night, no waking for a bottle and so she's been getting up a little earlier.

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

I'm just wondering if her own sleep rhythm would suit a slightly earlier bedtime - say 6.30-7pm?  Maybe it's just a little bit too late for her?

Has this just been a recent thing since going onto 2 naps?  Her earlier waking due to dropped night feeds sounds totally normal though and feasible.

[cwolff]

Honestly we used to put her to sleep earlier, and then she started fighting us big time.  And she starts rubbing her eyes at like 5pm, or 5:30pm and we can't put her to bed then anyway.  If I try to put her to sleep earlier she just takes longer to fall asleep.  And she has decided on her own that she will only do two naps.  It used to be three, but then she refused the catnap.  So I played around with the awake times and just decided it was going to be two naps.  She rarely if ever takes three naps, unless I decide to put her in the car and drive her around.  And even then I still get a cranky baby in the evenings.

[thitz]

I can't be much help.  But just wanted to share that my dd is the same and has been always.  It doesn't matter how good her naps were, at 4:00pm she becomes a cranky baby till bedtime.  I just have to play one on one with her and do her favorite activities to get her to bedtime.