Over tired baby? Any advice

[lockdownmumma123]

So I'm a first time mum so not really clued up on these things, I do know every baby's different and there's no book on how to look after a baby basically

I think my little girl is over tired, she use to sleep absolutely brilliant she went to bed at 7ish woke up once during the night and woke up at 8am so I honestly can't complain when her sleeping pattern was like that
Recently she has been really crabbit at night, it's as if she's fighting sleep! she dosnt nap much during the day anymore either so I think she might be over tired? Can a over tired baby stop them sleeping good at night? At the moment she's going to bed at 7pm waking up at 9 and every 2 hours after that, I am honestly knackered, my partner is working from home but he's working 8-8 atm he does help with night feeds ect but I feel bad for having him up helping all the time when he's working a 12hr shift so I tend to bring her into the living room when she's not settling, she's taking bottle every time she's waking up? is 5 months to early to start on baby rice at night to see if it fills her tummy up a bit more? I know the health visitor says 6 months but I've heard mixed reviews just so stuck on what's best to do

I'm not against weaning early for the right reasons but I would caution against assuming that it's hunger waking her up.

How much is she taking at each feed? How does she get to sleep at bedtime? If she feeds to sleep or uses a bottle for comfort, she may be stirring in the night and wanting the bottle to settle back to sleep.

Does she have a dummy? If not, it might be worth introducing one and offering it first to see if the sucking helps her to settle.

Also bear in mind babies have growth spurts and sleep regressions around this age, which are normal and will pass in time.

Weaning at 5 months is fine, but your baby needs to meeting the criteria for it. A baby not sleeping as well as they used too isnt a reason to wean by itself.

Sorry, should also add that even if you were to wean, baby rice has no nutritional value and most people these days wouldn't bother with it. Milk is far more calorific, so if she's genuinely hungry more milk feeds during the day would be the way to go.

My baby is doing the same. Was sleeping 9pm-7am with 1 wake up. Then spent 3-4 days feeding every 1-2 hrs day and night. But last night he slept again with just 2 wake ups (3 and 5am), so I am hoping it’s a growth spurt

The 4 month sleep regression can happen anytime between 3 and 5 months so could it be that? I would recommend following Just Chill Mamma on instagram as she has great advice for sleep for babies...it has saved my sanity!

Why not bath her at 7? Brilliant for knocking out babies ime!!
Why does she not stay up for dh coming in?

Bedtime is maybe just too early.

How are her naps in the day? How often and for how long?

My girl is months and she only naps 30-40mins in the day so she ends up having 4 naps a day. Her night sleep is amazing though, unless she misses a nap then she becomes an over tired mess.

*my girl is 5 months. Can't seem to edit my post

Sounds like the 4 month sleep regression hitting a bit late. She needs to be napping a lot in the day though, my DS did about 1.5 hours awake time at that age. Overtiredness definitely makes their sleep worse.

I'll preface this by saying I am against early weaning unless it's on medical advice, but I really wouldn't introduce baby rice. Firstly, it's absolute rubbish - if your baby is hungry then give them milk that actually contains nutrients. Secondly, frequent waking protects babies against SIDS, so you don't want to be filling them up so much that they sleep heavily. Thirdly, my daughters sleep was so much worse when we started weaning as her tummy got used to all these new foods.

@Ihaveoflate
She's taking around 7 ounce during the night at every bottle, I've tried her on a dummy a few times but she just spits it back at me!
She used to have her night time bottle and go to sleep, I just put her in her bed and she would doze over, now it's a screaming match I usually have to push her in her pram to get her to bed

@Letsallscreamatthesistene I was thinking the same, I've never done any of this before so I do tend to listen to what my HV says but all my family are pushing pushing to get her on solids they are being quite pushy with it so I'm wondering if I'm doing the wrong thing by not having her on them, they say it will help her sleep but I just have no idea if it will

@Caspianberg it can be hard going when they are feeding constantly, I hope my we one is going through a growth spurt to and this isn't the new norm as I'm exhausted

@Mrbingleysbuttons I will have a look at her Instagram page thanks very much

@Feralkidsatthecampsite

Why not bath her at 7? Brilliant for knocking out babies ime!! Why does she not stay up for dh coming in? Bedtime is maybe just too early.

I did have her going to bed after DH finished work but she was getting really cranky as she was tired, if I put her to bed to late she gets really cranky and screams until she falls asleep ( I comfort her of course but she didn't stop crying )

@Loukifre she has around 2 30 minute naps a day, when she's going for her naps during the day she gets really cranky before her nap and eventually falls asleep but it's as if she's fighting sleep

@Spam88 thank you, I will read up on sleep regression, I'll take note of the baby rice, I originally was listening to my HV advice about weaning at 6months + but mostly all of my family are being really pushy about getting her on solids and changing her milk to stage 2 and everyone was saying it that much I was thinking I'm doing the wrong thing not giving her solids but after having everyone's advice on here it will be a defo no no for solids

Have you got the huckleberry app? It's free and tells you when they should be napping based on age. You can set a notification for beforehand (I do 15mins) so you can start the wind down before she gets overtired. Sleep breeds sleep so the better she learns to sleep during the day, the better she'll sleep of a night in theory. Sleep regression can mess with sleep but if they have good "sleep hygiene" then it can be more manageable.

I know it’s really hard to accomplish but I think your problem is that maybe she isn’t napping enough in the day too. Have you tried white noise or shhhing or patting her to try and get each nap to last more than an hour? I think the naps are really key and then the nighttime sleep follows.

2 x 30 minutes naps doesn't sound enough. You either want longer naps or 3 naps instead (if she won't sleep for long, mine didn't). I'd watch her like a hawk and at the first sign of tired get her ready for a nap - if she's getting cranky, she's already shattered in my experience!

I think baby rice is crap but re weaning, it made absolutely no difference to my DDs sleep whatsoever. Poor sleep isn't just hunger, it's developmental too.

I'd do whatever you need to do to get her to nap more in the day. I used to have to rock my daughter in a dark room with white noise blasting for aaaages to get her to nap (DS is easier thank god!).

People are obsessed with getting babies on to solids early, it's weird 🤷‍♀️

I’d google some sleep schedules for a 5 month old and stick to it rigidly so she gets into some form of routine. Also at her age she could be waking up for numerous reasons; teething, hunger, feeling cold, comfort. But I think once you adhere to a
sleep schedule things will settle down again. Good luck!

My daughter is only 7 weeks, but putting her down on a night was a nightmare till last week, we started what we call the '4bs routine' we bath her at 7, then upstairs to get her dressed for bed, a bottle in bed and a story, then wrap her in her blanket and lay her between my husband and I as we watch a film, we don't give her any attention but she knows we're there and falls asleep, then put her in her Moses basket once she's asleep and she only wakes once or twice in the night. Does DC have a solid nighttime routine?