chronically overtired 7 months old

[Aga06]

hi,
My 7 months old girl is chronically overtired, she is taking forever to fall asleep at naps and napping around 36 minutes only. She will not go back to sleep after that although she is trying to settle, rubbing her eyes, suckling her thumb or comforter, moving hear head side to side, etc.
She is going down for bedtime OK so far but she is waking up past 4 or 5am obviously not rested, yawing, rubbing her eyes and trying to go back to sleep but no success.
She is also frequently hiccuping, sneezing, coughing due to overtiredness. Before that we had fine routine with 2 hours awake time. Now it seems impossible to go back to that. She can only handle 2 hours awake time but showing tiredness signs any time before that(even after wake up). I put her down immediately but she is taking forever to fall asleep, even over 2 hrs! I started putting her in the swing.Often in the swing she will sleep longer but again will take much time to fall asleep and so she is awake for over 2 hrs. Rocking her does not always seem to work as she is not able to fall asleep easily and getting irritated. I tried shortening her awake time to get her more sleep, making more naps and making early bed time but naps are just impossible! She will not nap more than 2 or 3 times a day it seems :( Also it takes forever for her to fall asleep....
Sometimes shes awake for 4 hours or more, obviously tired, sneezing, hiccuping and coughing. I do not know what else to do. Please can anyone advise!

Sounds like reflux. Take her to the docs and explain and ask to try something for it

www.thesleeplady.co.uk/silent-reflux-tips/

hi Autumn18,
I do not think she has got reflux, she is not showing any pain signs or issues during feeding. The hiccups, sneezing and coughing started when she started getting overtired by staying awake more than 2 hours.She had never had those before and we were on routine with 2 hrs awake time. It started after 5 months when her naps got messy.She was yawing and rubbing her eyes but would not fall asleep in time when put down but was taking forever. Then I assumed she needs more awake time and would let her stay 2.5hrs but after that she would not sleep but grizzle. I tried 3hrs awake time but she was not fine with it either. Since then she has had trouble falling asleep at naps and it just got worse...

My DD wouldn't have slept for long after only a 2 hour gap at that age.

At 5 months we started doing the 2, 3, 4 method which worked really well for us. So first nap 2 hours after waking in the morning, then after that nap 3 hours awake until the next one etc.

I think you should get her checked for reflux and and ear infection. If they are ruled out, then do you think she is hungry, needs burping, is she more alert and needs a darker room, maybe some white noise would help her drop off.

At 7 months my ds was doing

7am up, bottle
8/8:30am breakfast
9:30 -10:15am nap
11:30am lunch followed by bottle
1-3pm nap followed by bottle
5pm dinner
7pm bed
10pm dream feed

How's the weaning going? My ds wasn't eating much at this stage but I was offering at mealtimes

Yes, white noise is playing for naps & bedtime. She is not screaming in pain so it does not seem like ear infection or reflux?
One she took nap 1 after 2 hrs of wake up and it was 1hr. Then I tried to put her for nap 2 after 2hrs 15mins trying to achieve 2.5hrs awake time before nap 2 but she would not settle showing signs of overtiredness(hiccuping, sneezing, rubbing eyes) and it took her 3hrs 17mins to fall asleep! (in the swing)! Nap 3 she took after 2.5hrs in the swing....

Since then I am scared to let her stay awake more than 2hrs although she is still sleeping at random times as she is having problem falling asleep and is staying awake more than 3 , 4 or more hours... grizzling ofcourse....

Today routine was like this:
wu 4.46 am, she couldnt settle to sleep more so I put her on the swing to extend her night sleep.
5.50am - 7.05am slept in swing, then bottle & baby rice
played a bit & put her in the swing for nap by 8.30am but she fell asleep 9.50am till 11.05am (yawing, rubbing eyes, moving head to sides, suckling thumb etc)
on wake up bottle & play. Put her back in swing by 12.30, she slept 13.18 to 14.35
on wake up bottle & solids, play.
put her for the last nap by 15.50 but she fell asleep 16.45 and slept till 17.20!
on wake up bottle, then after a while solids and quiet time, aiming at 19.20 bedtime.
Shes not asleep untill 20.38!! :'(

She is not waking at night for feed though.... and in the mornings is not crying for me but trying to settle back to sleep unsuccessfully, than after 1 hr is making irritated sounds....