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Behaviour/development

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Overtired baby?

10 replies

AllyMay1994 · 17/05/2023 18:34

Hi I have a nearly 6 month old and she is constantly showing signs of being overtired, rubbing her eyes and pulling on her hair, very very active and she gets unsettled and crys a lot. She hasn't been sleeping well at night waking up being unsettled as she has just learnt to roll. She had covid and was very poorly with it and since then just hasn't been the same baby.

Has anyone got any tips for an overtired baby?
Should I put her to bed earlier?
Should I shorten her awake windows?
Has anyone else experienced this?

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SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 18/05/2023 07:36

I'd definitely work on her naps @AllyMay1994. Both of mine were much happier if they napped well Wink

AllyMay1994 · 18/05/2023 09:47

SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 18/05/2023 07:36

I'd definitely work on her naps @AllyMay1994. Both of mine were much happier if they napped well Wink

Okay thank you! I find my little one is fighting sleep so much at the moment, how much awake time between naps for a 6 month old? As I've seen lots of different times. 2-3 hours? Or 3-4 hours?

OP posts:
SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 18/05/2023 18:37

I think we did one hour for the first one, two for the second and three for the third?

skkyelark · 18/05/2023 22:20

Unfortunately wake windows very much depend on the child. I think 2-3 hours is common at 6 months, probably with 3 naps a day. Mine were both doing 3-4 hours with 2 naps a day at 6 months, but they definitely had longer wake windows for age than most of the other babies we knew.

What's her absolute favourite (safe) way to sleep? In a moving buggy? On you? In her cot? In a sling? What I'd do when mine lost the plot sleep-wise was have a couple of days where my absolute priority was to get them to nap decently. If that meant planning three buggy walks a day, that's what I did for a little bit. Once I got them out of the miserable overtired phase and they started getting a little bit of a rhythm back, then I'd start incorporating naps in their less-favoured locations again.

Hopingforarainbow27 · 06/07/2023 19:11

@Skylark1990 how do you get your babies to nap well? My baby Is 4 months old and has never been a good sleeper. the only way she will sleep if I drive with her or go for a walk, then when she does sleep it's for 20 minutes so i basically spend my whole day trying to get her to sleep. I hear so many people just lay their baby down and they doze off. She has never done this, she will lie for 20 minutes then she will be hysterical because she's overtired and it could go on for 5 hours 😩

skkyelark · 06/07/2023 21:05

If you keep driving or walking, will she keep sleeping? DD2 was walked to sleep for basically every nap for a good few months – we got one of the rocker things you can attach to the pram handle to keep it jiggling after you've stopped.

How does she fall asleep at night or if she wakes during the night?

I suppose the other question is if she wakes after 20 minutes, is she happy, or is she grumpy and tired?

Hopingforarainbow27 · 07/07/2023 00:58

@skkyelark no she will wake up on her own at the 20/30 minute mark even if I'm still out a walk or in the car. I also bought one of them rockit things, but she still wakes if I stop and it's still on 😂
Night time she's easier to get to sleep she usually falls asleep after a bottle but she can't self settle. She's maybe fell asleep on her own twice.
Yes she would be happy after her short nap but 1.5 hour later I've to do the whole process again so basically spend all day out trying to get her to nap to avoid the hysterical crying of tiredness

skkyelark · 07/07/2023 14:02

@Hopingforarainbow27 , despite what you read, lots and lots of babies don't self-settle at a young age. (Weirdly, DD2 did for a bit at night, at the same age as needing to be walked to sleep for every nap – I could feed her when she woke up, then pop her back in the next to me, and she'd drift off herself. It was lovely, but didn't last.) I'd wouldn't worry about that for now, and not for a good few months.

If she's happy after a 20-30 minute nap, in the short term, that might just be how it is. It's really hard to make someone sleep when they're not tired, so it just takes ages, and still doesn't work very well (yes, we tried this with DD1, and learnt from our mistakes with DD2). If her wake window is about 1.5 hours and then her nap is 20-30 minutes, I'd just accept that for now and try to plan around it.

Obviously that's easier if you don't have to be out every time she needs a nap! We did a lot of walking up and down our street/the next street and then nipping home and putting the rockit on as soon as she was asleep. Will she sleep in a sling? Then she could maybe fall asleep and have her nap on you as you move around the house/garden doing whatever you need or want to do. Will she fall asleep after a bottle during the nap if you timed it right? I know people go on about not creating a habit of feeding to sleep – but it's what babies are naturally wired to do, and it doesn't have to be forever.

Also reassurance – they do grow out of it. DD1 learnt to drift off herself sometime between 1 and 2. DD2 is not there yet at 16 months, but is starting to manage it occasionally (with me in the room).

Tiredjoanna · 12/07/2023 10:03

My little one fights sleep like a samurai. He has 2-3 naps a day that only last half hour max. Has been like this from birth. Though he's 9.5 months old now he still won't settle himself at night, anyone got tips for how to get him to this point?

Tiredjoanna · 12/07/2023 10:12

I'd say once you see the first signs of tiredness then take any over stimulating things away and try to lull her into having a nap by whichever works best for you. I usually try couple of Oz of milk and rocking to sleep. Overstimulation can be the worst thing for overtired baby

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