5.5-month-old suddenly very active at night — could daytime naps be affecting her ability to self-settle?
My baby is 5.5 months old and has always had a very calm temperament and been a great sleeper. But for the past 2 weeks, she has become very active during the night. She isn't really awake, but she moves her arms, kicks, squirms, etc. for large portions of the night.
Sometimes she settles again with just a hand on her body, but other times I need to pick her up. She sleeps in a bassinet next to my bed and wears a sleep sack.
I'm not currently sleep training, but I'm starting to lean towards helping her learn to fall asleep independently and self-settle.
The confusing part is her daytime naps.
On weekends, when I'm home, her naps have been going really well. I'll put her down, and anything from 40 minutes onwards is great for me. If she wakes after 40 minutes, she is usually happy and content in her bassinet. Sometimes she even moves around a bit and then falls back asleep on her own.
During the week, I'm working and she's with our nanny. The nanny lets her fall asleep in her arms, which I'm completely fine with because I do this sometimes too. She then puts her down in the crib.
The issue is that when the baby makes even the slightest movement around the 40-minute mark, the nanny immediately picks her up, rocks her in the rocking chair and then often holds her in her arms for another hour while she sleeps.
I personally would leave her if she's just moving around. If she wakes, she wakes. If she doesn't, she sometimes manages to fall back asleep by herself.
So now I'm wondering:
Should I ask the nanny to stop picking her up so quickly and give her a chance to resettle?
Is holding/rocking her back to sleep for another hour completely fine at this age?
Could the difference between our nap approaches be contributing to her current nighttime restlessness?
Could she be getting too used to being resettled by someone else and therefore struggling to self-settle at night?
Or is this just a normal developmental phase around 5–6 months, and I'm overthinking the whole thing?
I'm not trying to do strict sleep training. I just want to encourage good sleep habits without making her unnecessarily cry or forcing anything.
Would love to hear what others did around this age, especially if you had a similar situation with a nanny/daycare during the week and a different approach at home on weekends.