Overtired or undertired at bedtime

[Belle82]

Hi all,

Until recently (few days ago) I was following a purchased sleep plan online. They ended up telling me my (just turned yesterday) 7 month old only needed 2hrs 20 minuets sleep a day. First nap being 20 minuets and a 2 hour nap midday, when I woke my LG up after 20 minuets for her morning nap she would never sleep for 2 hours later and it ended up getting to the point where she was only catnapping 30 minuets at a time.
I decided the following day that as all babies are different I was going to let her catch up on this sleep deficit, so let her sleep until she woke and her her back into a routine later (2 hour morning nap and an hour afternoon nap)

The sleep team also said at 6/7 months the awake time before bed could be 2.5 - 4 hours, she woke at 4.30 so I bathed her and fed her ready for bed at 7.30-8, and have just had an hour of crying before she fell asleep, now I don't know if she went to bed overtired or under-tired, any advice would be massively appreciated 😢?

She's waking lots in the night, but she's in a next to me cot and so goes back to sleep if I hold her hand or put my face next to hers and move when she falls asleep. But again I don't know if this is because of over/undertiredness.

Thank you for reading this, sorry it's such a long post/question x

[Srsly]

At that age, the 2/3/4 routine worked really well for my two. It's flexible too which I liked.

2hrs awake
Nap (however long you like really! Mine go between 35mins to 2hrs, usually 1hr15.)
3hrs awake
Nap
4hrs awake
Bedtime!

I sort of worked backwards and thought if I want bed at 7:30, he needs to be up by 3:30 from nap 2 so I may need to cut that nap short if the ealry morning one has been really long. But it generally works well. Our day looks like this

Awake 7.
Sleep 9-10:30
Sleep again 1:30-3
Bed 7.

Sometimes naps and bedtimes are slightly earlier or later :) if he only has 2 short naps he will still need a quick 15 minute catnap between 4:30-5:00.

[sar302]

I think it also depends on when LO wakes up. My ten month old is in bed asleep by 7pm every night.
He usually wakes about 6.30, so he does a 12.5hr day, with about 2.5-3hr of naps. If baby wakes at 6am and isn't going to bed til 8pm, that's a really long day! Especially with only 2-2.5hrs sleep.x

[sar302]

Oh, and no naps after 4pm is what I live by, so then they're always ready for bed at 7 x

[Belle82]

Sorry I should have said she woke up at 8.45. Later than usual due to her not sleeping til 9/9.30 the night before x

[ivfnewbe]

My lo only doing 4 hours awake since 11 months. He could do more and not be cranky but made him wake early or wake lots at night
I’d say 3ish hours before bed at that age - he slept really well on that. And about 2.5 hours in day.
(Now is a different story)

[sar302]

I'd be tempted to get her up at a set time - say 7am, and follow the same routine every day. At least for a month, your life revolves around their naps - no pushing them by even half an hour to do something else.

At that age (with the caveat that all babies are different) my baby was doing:

6.15/6.30 awake
8.30-10.00 nap
12.15-1.15 nap
3.30-4.15 nap
6.45 in bed and asleep

We tried to drop down to two naps a day, but that just resulted in him being tired and grouchy all day, and then waking up at 5.30am every day. Overtired. We tried it for two weeks and then went back to three naps, until about 8.5 months. Saying that, I had friends whose babies were on 2 naps at 7 months 🤷‍♀️

We've used this as a guide
www.weebeedreaming.com/my-blog/sample-schedule-4-months-up
X

[Belle82]

Thank you so much to you all for responding to me. Really appreciate the advice.
Sar thank you so so much for that link, I have been looking for something like that for a couple of weeks.
Xx