No more than 4 hrs of sleep

Sleep problems....

I have an 8 & 1/2 month old daughter. She is pretty good with naps, but sucks at night time sleep (no pun intended!) She has 2 naps per day, one from 9ish to 10 - 10:30ish, and an afternoon nap from 1 to anywhere from 2 to 3ish.

Here's the problem: nighttime sleep. She's in bed by 8 and awake by 11 or 12midnite. We're trying a modified cry it out sorta situation, and she's usually up, screaming for about an hour. We sort of pop in to reassure her, but no feeds at that time. (I'm nursing) Then she's usually up by 4:30 or 5, raring to go. Not crying this time, but awake & happy, babbling/playing. She's in her own room.

Any thoughts/advice? All welcome.

Thanks.

Your timing sounds good. I read a book called "healthy Sleep - Happy Child" by Dr Weissbluth I think. You are basically following all the timings except that he recommends putting children down for night time sleep between 6-8 pm depending on age. Also make sure the child doe snot sleep past 3 pm in the afternoon or else it interferes with night sleep. Wake the child if she wants to sleep past 3.
I did the cry it out and sleep training around 8 months. I did not go in at all when the child cried. This is extremely hard especially with your first child. I would have to go put on ear phones so I wouldn't cry when I hear my son crying. The good news is that after a fwe days of being tough he settled into the routine and slept through the night and I finally got some rest too.
I think if you do go in to check on your baby when she cries at midnight then do no smile, cuddle or give her any sort of entertainment or reward for crying or else she learns that she gets something out of the night time crying. It sounds bad but it works and really does make for a very happy and manageable child all day long if you can get the naps and sleep system down to clockwork

I would be inclined to try feeding her at midnight when she wakes up but do it in the dark so doesn't think it is get up time. She is at an age when many need more food to go overnight and some cereal before bed can help too. You could also try giving her a nap over your supper at 6 and then keep her up till later when you are ready to go. Used to do that with mine and it gave them time to be with daddy in the evening and then when the late news came on I would sit and relax and nurse them and then put them down so the 6 hours of sleep was from midnight to 6 am which was much better than only get a dab of sleep myself and then up through the night.

Sleep begets sleep. Although, my breastfed babies (got 4 of them!) were all still waking for at least one nurse in the night...it is considered developmentally normal at this age (I have an 8 month old son myself who still wakes once a night to nurse. He goes to bed at 6:30pm, wakes at 2am, sleeps till 6:30am. Naps from 9-11am and 1-3pm. It works for us, and also follows Dr Weissbluth's advice on an earlier bedtime...circadian rhythms being what they are, sometimes babies sleep longer and better with an earlier bedtime.