10 month old - overtired but won't sleep!

[Jomoore311080]

Hi

I have never posted on one of these sites before but am desparate for help....and sleep!!

My 10 month old little girl has never been a good sleeper and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Her daytime naps seem to be the main problem as she only sleeps for half an hour and wakes up still tired.

I have a 3 year old as well who wasn't a great sleeper either (but better than this!) and am well read re routines, wake times, self soothing etc etc.

In the day we put her down after about 3 hours of being awake as she becomes very overtired, I am scared to leave it longer because of this. I have tried putting her down earlier but she just sits in cot and screams.

She will wake up after half an hour and you can see she is wide awake (we have a baby camera so watch her closely!). Have tried leaving her a bit but she doesn't go back to sleep. She is then tired for the remainder of the day. She'll usually have 2 x 30 minute naps in the day and seems to me to be always tired.

She whinges a lot, isn't relaxed and won't really play. I have to carry her round with me, or get out in car or pushchair as she is better when moving.

She has a 6.30pm bedtime or even earlier. During the night she usually only wakes once at about 4am, will have a 5 minute feed and go back to sleep until morning, she doesn't really need the night feed and isn't that hungry but if I don't feed her she will just cry and scream until I do (I have lasted a couple of hours attempting this several times)

My daughter is still breastfed exclusively but I have always been careful to not feed her to sleep. She is only fed at bedtime and in the night. She is a good eater. She goes to bed in the day and night wide awake and goes to sleep by herself.

As well as this, she has always had a tendency to have these wide awake spells in the middle of the night, by this I mean she is talking and playing in her cot for around 2 hours during the night so although she is in bed she isn't actually getting the sleep she needs!

Until recently she used to lie-in in the morning until 8.30/9am which meant is was easier to get through the day on her 2 catnaps. Now she is waking around 6.30/7 and she is shattered.

I just don't know what to do to make her sleep longer in the day. She is capable of it as when poorly etc she occasionally will sleep for an hour or maybe 1.5 hours in the day (although then virtually impossible to get her to have 2nd sleep in afternoon). Bedtime is getting earlier and earlier as she is so tired.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated

Thanks

Oh no how difficult for you. Am not an expert and my DD is not a great sleeper AT ALL but didn't want your thread to go unanswered.

It sounds like you have tried lots of things. Have you read no cry nap solution?

Could she be teething/have headache/earache?

for you. It's so hard. Some friends had similar problems and they resolved themselves once their babies were moving more and could tire themselves out physically. Hope it's the same for you.

My nearly one year old will not sleep longer than 30 min in cot for naps. But will do longer in car or pram. So now I just pop the pram out the back door and rock to sleep. I usually have to catch him at the half hour mark because he stirs but if I resettle he'll do an hour or 90 minutes even. I can still potter about and do jobs and he's generally happier.

I'm not clear from your post if your LO will only nap 30 min regardless of where?

Well done on not feeding to sleep - at least that's one battle you don't have!

My DD was always one to get over tired - and then would be nightmare and be really restless at nap time and night time. We discovered acupressure to help her wind down quicker and sleep deeper. It may be something you could use instead of the breast feed at 3am. Here's my blog post on it if you're interested - mydaughterwontsleep.com/2013/12/27/the-sleep-inducing-power-of-acupressure/

good luck

My 9 month old will only sleep for 30 minutes in her cot but will sleep for three hours in her pram! I have a 2 year old as well so I wrap the baby up warm put a raoncover over her (even if it's not raining as it's so cold still at the moment!) and leave her outside in the garden so the 2 year old doesn't wake her up!! She only takes about a minute of walking to get her to sleep but if I put her in her cot she cries for half an hour then only sleeps half an hour so it's just not worth it! She self settles at bedtime, always has done!