Avoiding overtired baby at night (12 weeks)?

[trrk]

Over the last few weeks my almost 12w baby has really woken up a lot and seems to be getting overtired every night, turning into a screaming mess and being hard to settle. We have tried avoiding too much stimulation (toys/baby gym) in the later part of the day, encouraging naps after ~90 min awake time during the day, burping her well and having a bath after her last nap (at around 8:30pm) but she still ended up screaming for several hours last night. Once in bed for the night she sleeps quite well with only one wake-up depending on what time we got her down. How can we avoid getting to the screaming mess stage in the first place? She wakes up quite happy but seems progressively fussy in the late afternoon and evening.

I have a baby the same age and I've had the same issue. I think they become really aware at this age so get over-tired fast. What's working for us is to shorten the wake window a bit and up the pre-nap relaxation. We now start nap "proceedings" after 1-hr awake - I read him a couple books and then soothe him by bouncing on the ball for 10 mins, sometimes playing a lullaby, then to the bedroom around 1h15 awake for nap. He usually falls asleep at 1h20-25 mins awake.

At bedtime again I start soothing him at 1h awake, and then to the dark bedroom around 1h10 mins awake (he's so tired by the end of the day) and keep soothing him to sleep from there. Much less screaming happening here since we started doing lots of extra pre-sleep soothing.

@Endlesslaundry123 Thanks for the tips! I’ll try some more pre-sleep soothing. What time is your final bedtime? Is it the same every night or just ~1hr after the last nap?

He will finally conk out for the night anytime after 8:30 so bedtime is 1 hour after the last pre-8:30 nap, I guess! Or if that nap starts quite late (say 8pm) I sometimes hold him for his entire last nap and help him transition to the next sleep cycle where he'll enter his deeper nighttime sleep and I can put him down. So I might hold him from 8-9pm and then gently transfer to his cot.

Look at the Gina Ford routines, might give you some tips

Sounds to me like she wants to be asleep. My two were both in bed before 7pm at that age. Second Gina Ford for tips / routines.

Thanks for the advice! I’ll look up some routines and see how we get on. I’ve read a lot of mixed advice about how useful routines are at this point. @Endlesslaundry123 How long does your little sleep for after being put down? We tried an earlier bedtime but now DD is waking up for an extra feed. Guess this is pretty normal at this stage and we just have to live with it but it messes with my sleep a bit as I find it hard to fall asleep after night feeds.

He used to sleep between 4-7 hours in the first go, but everything has gone a little haywire as he has a cold and is about to enter the fussy period for leap 4 so he's been waking a lot more. Yes the night feeds are tough..... I did sleep training with my daughter at 5 or 6 months and will do the same with my son in a few months because it made such a difference to everyone's sleep and general routine and happiness.