Grumpy tired 16 week baby

[MumOfOneInTown123]

Hi all, just looking for some advice.

My DS is 16.5 weeks old and since 11/12 weeks has become fussier and started to fight naps. He also only wants to nap on us now where as before we could put him down easier. If we do manage to get him down now (which is rare) he'll only manage a 20 min nap then be unhappy. He does sleep in the pram but again only 20-30 mins.

It seems to be worse this week particularly the evening nap he fights it lots and its knackering. He needs to be rocked to sleep for day naps at the moment. I keep an eye on his wake window which has been about 1hr to 1hr 15 and just before this ill simmer him down for a nap, whisper, take him to the dimmer room to walk him around etc. Morning nap is the easiest then later it gets tougher.

Night time isn't as bad (so far), we've always followed a routine with dim lighting in bedroom, white noise, nappy change and feed before rocking and putting in crib. A lot of the times we put him in crib and he'll wake up but eventually self settle himself to sleep.

He also gets distracted feeding and eventually only breast feeds for 4 mins and then on a bottle hes only been doing half feeds. Hes mostly breastfed at the moment though. His weight has been fine, was 70th percentile but now 60th percentile though. I just worry hes not feeding enough! I do follow his cues.

The past couple of days hes also been chewing a lot and drooling. No teeth but bottom gums look slightly red. Ive given teething powder and teething rings but he overall seems quite grumpy at the moment or always tired even though he naps 4 hours total in the day time and sleeps 11 hours at night. Any less and hes overtired!

Anyways I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else had the same experiences around this age and does it get better?! Also will he always want to nap on me or does this stop eventually? I feel like im in a nap cycle at the moment and its hard to go out because he wont nap as long if hes not on me and then he ends up being overtired.

Yes went through exactly the same, particularly mood swings and surprisingly physically fighting naps! Then the heartsink of finally putting him down in crib and hearing him cry 30 seconds later. It got dramatically better at about 19 weeks, 23 weeks now and he still fights naps a bit but can be sung/shhd to sleep in his crib with no contact required. It is really really hard, but will very likely get better in the next few weeks.

@Namechangegardens

Yes went through exactly the same, particularly mood swings and surprisingly physically fighting naps! Then the heartsink of finally putting him down in crib and hearing him cry 30 seconds later. It got dramatically better at about 19 weeks, 23 weeks now and he still fights naps a bit but can be sung/shhd to sleep in his crib with no contact required. It is really really hard, but will very likely get better in the next few weeks.

Its so tough isn't it... I'm finding it harder than the newborn stages! He's always been a chill happy baby and now he just seems tired or moody about something!

This gives me some hope that it will get better soon though! Hopefully not too long to go... just keep feeling like I'm doing something wrong! But good to hear other experiences

At that age, I think he could just do with a bit longer awake. An hour of wake windows for a 4 month old is quite short... the catnaps indicate (from what I remember reading at the time) he could be undertired. Maybe try 2 hours of wake time? I do remember my son going through a phase of 20/30 minute naps however, that was around 6 - 8 weeks, then a little bit again at about 3 months ish. I focused heavily on tummy time to get him really tired out, too. Sleep is a developmental rollercoaster, it's not linear for most babies. But I think if I tried to get him to sleep again after being awake for an hour at 4 months he would have just literally laughed in my face! You must be very, very good at settling techniques to manage that

@DonnyBurrito

At that age, I think he could just do with a bit longer awake. An hour of wake windows for a 4 month old is quite short... the catnaps indicate (from what I remember reading at the time) he could be undertired. Maybe try 2 hours of wake time? I do remember my son going through a phase of 20/30 minute naps however, that was around 6 - 8 weeks, then a little bit again at about 3 months ish. I focused heavily on tummy time to get him really tired out, too. Sleep is a developmental rollercoaster, it's not linear for most babies. But I think if I tried to get him to sleep again after being awake for an hour at 4 months he would have just literally laughed in my face! You must be very, very good at settling techniques to manage that

Thanks will try that. Sometimes he tired after an hour however yesterday went a bit longer - 1.5 hours. Been doing lots of tummy time too to try knacker him out. He now expresses different feelings like frustration when hes impatient about something or wants to be doing something else, rather than just when hes tired or hungry! So maybe ive been confusing some cues with tiredness instead and trying to get him to snooze too soon. They grow so quickly!