Please help, chronically overtired 3mo

[mistressploppy]

Posting on phone while holding baby, please help, naps gone from 45min to 30min to 10min. Wakes lots at night, how the hell do I break the overtired cycle?

(((hugs))) 3-6 months is a tough stage developmentally where many babies take short 45min naps, which can quickly lead to overtiredness.

When/ how often is baby (dd/ds???) napping in the day & what time does she get up & go to bed?

does she have any signs of reflux?

Short term fix - could you take her for a long walk in the pram/pushchair or for a ride in the car just to try & get her a nice long nap? This might help you break the cycle.

Then post your routine so we can take a look & see if anything needs changing.x

He started 45min naps at 6wks . Getting worse ever since, by 10wks they were always 30min and today I repeatedly resettled him after 10min snatches.

He can take 2hrs to settle at bedtime as he's so tired.

We lack routine due to having a 2yo but I try to get him down for a nap after 1.5hrs awake, and 1hr in the morning. Doesn't work

He has a bedtime routine, bath with ds1 at 6, then feed in the dark and bed as early as poss.

Basically I put him down for as many naps as possible but I'm neglecting my older one to do so and I'm at my wits end. He won't even sleep for longer in car/ buggy

Will he sleep in a sling? This was the only way DS would sleep during the day until he was about 9 months old. It did mean I had my hands free, though.

I found that if he was close to me as much as possible, it was easier for him to relax and nod off as and when he needed to.

He doesn't sleep in the sling

He's just WEIRD

He seems to sleep best in his cot, just only for 30 frigging minutes. He's not very cuddly and prefers to lie on a mat kicking about, or in a bouncy chair.

will he fall asleep in the bouncy chair? My DD would only nap 30-45 mins at that age and only on me or DH but she's our first so no other kids to worry about plus she used to sleep all night too cursed 4 month sleep regression

He doesn't fall asleep anywhere except the buggy and carseat for short periods. All other sleeps have to be 'parentally forced' by rocking in arms

Hiya hun

I think I just answered your other thread too

I just checked out some sleep info that I have always found really accurate for my DS as a young baby. At your ds's age awake for about 1h 20-30 is about right, BUT this is assuming they have a decent length nap of at least an hour.

So if your LO is doing a short nap of 10-30mins then he may (temporarily) need to go down a wee bit sooner. Could you try this out tomorrow, so if he does a 30min nap, perhaps try putting him down after an hour-1.25hrs max rather than the full 1.5hrs, and see if he settles any better. Ideally you need to be looking for the first signs of sleepiness eg a yawn, a rub of the eye or him staring blankly. If he starts fussing/crying or he's done more than 3 yawns its probably already too late & he will be more difficult to settle.

If you think he'll struggle to go down in the house try going out for a walk at about the 50min mark so he'll hopefully go off to sleep at the 1hr mark. If he settles & takes a longer nap, then you can try putting him down after his usual 1.5hrs for his next nap (unless you get tired signs before that of course).

Oh & one other thing to mention is the 1h 20-1h 30 suggested awake time is the total time awake from the minute they wake from 1 nap to the minute they are asleep for the next nap. So if you are trying to put your ds down at the 1.5hr mark & he's taking 10-15mins to settle so actually awake for 1.75hrs in total IYSWIM, then he may well be going down too late. You need to aim to start his wind down 10-15mins before you want him asleep so at the 1h 15-20 mark & hopefully he will be nicely asleep at the 1.5hr mark.

HTH.x

I don't feel in any position to give advice really, as my 3 1/2mth old has gone through bad napping too (fingers crossed seeing better naps now) - mine is fine sleeping in my arms (or sling, walking for 4-5hours a day) but if I tried to put him in his cot he'd do a startle reflex literally every 10seconds which would wake him up. Have you tried using a swaddle pod? Mine's so wriggly that a swaddle blanket (or even a velcroed one) would get kicked off, but one with a zip seems to help...sometimes...good luck!