What to Do with 8 Month Old Early Riser?

My 8 month old daughter for the past 2 months has been waking up between 5-6am, (mostly 5-5:30). 2 weeks ago, and then twice this week, she has been waking at 4:45. She does sleep through the night, but she used to wake up between 6-7:15.
She goes to bed at 7. I've tried to actually put her to bed a little bit earlier for one week (at 6:30) and noticed no difference. I tried to put her to bed later, but she is a zombie and will cry.
She takes 3-4 naps, which are usually 40 minutes. 3-4 days of the week, she does have at least one of those naps that is twice that long (one hour and twenty minutes). I have tried to do everything to extend them (shortening her time of wakefulness to make sure she's not overtired (roughly 1.5 hour), lengthening them between naps to see if she's more tired (21/2 hours). On average, 2 hours seems to be her baseline. That being said, I can't put her on a schedule because her naps aren't consistently the same time, all the time.
I can try to keep her up a little later, but I hate to keep her more awake than I have to, being that her typical naps are so short.
Any suggestions or advice? I"m just frustrated because not only do I not get a lot of time during the day but I have to start my day too early.
PS Ive let her cry it out-Sometimes she'll hang out in her crib for 15 minutes, then it progresses to a cry until she passes out.BUT, every time I do this, she only naps for 30 minutes. In the morning, I try not to get her out of bed until 6. But it depends on how early she wakes; if it's really early, she doesn't last that long. I usually get her before a full-throttle cry. Sometimes shell cry a little or whine. I will leave her in her crib in hopes that she goes back to sleep. She usually dozes for only about 15 minutes before waking up again. (PLUS, she just recently learned to stand up, so now she grabs the edge of her paknplay and stands, barely peaking above her bed, shouting out & then eventually crying..)
When i go to her, she usually gets excited, expecting me to pick her up. When I don't she wails.
Some ideas: I dont usually feed her until 6:30. Should I just give her a bottle when she wakes & try to put her immediately back to see if she sleeps? I just dont want to start an early am feeding if I've never done it.
Also, my husband wants to place a small toy in her bed so maybe she could play with it to keep her occupied? I feel like this might be distracting to her to where she really wont fall back asleep at all, or, that she might roll over it and wake her. She moves a lot during the night. Would this be a bad/good idea? We can't seem to agree on this issue
Any advice, suggestions, ideas really needed and greatly appreciated!! FYI I give her 5 bottles of formula (5-61/2 oz.every 3 hours or so) plus solids 3x a day. She is teething but I dont think it seems to bother her. Her first 2 teeth I never knew came in until I just happened to look. She is starting to get her top teeth. But again, her early wakings have been going on for at least a couple of months now. We do use a humidifer/noise machine plus blackout curtains
Is there something I could do better to shape better sleeping habits or is this a horrible phase? If it is, how long did your kids do this? I'm suffering from not getting enough sleep. I try to go to bed earlier, but sometime I can't get myself to sleep earlier, despite being in bed at an early time. Please help!