I'm such a crap mother - overtired baby won't stop crying!

[blueberrypudding]

Poor baby. She's been awake all day - just wouldn't go down at all or even sleep in arms. She was overheated in the weather as well, so was really uncomfortable and wailing non-stop when she wasn't feeding. The instant she finished and came off and realised she was still awake, she would start crying again.

It's making me feel awful and helpless that I can't help her and that I didn't prevent it earlier - it seems like she's never going to settle tonight and is absolutely exhausted.

What do I do? Feel. So. Goddamn. Shit.

Babies and overtiredness. It is a central design flaw that they do not just bloody sleep when tired . You are not a crap mother, everyone has this and the heat really is an unsettling factor.

Another practical tip from me to add to those above is gentle massage / touch - my DD likes having her back stroked, she used to like having her feet tickled. Low lights, on our soft bed, talk to her at the same time. Skin to skin too.

She would also more reliably fall asleep on me or DH at that age, ie DH would lie on his back in bed and DD bunched on his chest and he would rock her of course she'd wake up the minute that he stopped

Good luck!

YY to working on naps-breaking the OT cycle really helped with DS. He would only nap in car or pushchair for the first 5 months-I walked for MILES, two or three times a day. Also early bedtime worked for us, he was in bed by 6pm for the whole of his first year. Once I had a cast iron nap routine in place we worked on getting them in the cot which we eventually managed. Black out blinds, white noise and sleeping bags! Good luck, and tomorrow is another day x

My DD was the same - only thing that worked was acupressure to help her calm down - she's get sooo over tired. Also chamomile homepathic drops for colic also seem to help relax baby - Here's my blog post on the acupressure point if you're interested. Good luck x
mydaughterwontsleep.com/2013/12/27/the-sleep-inducing-power-of-acupressure/

YES YES to whoever said we have ALL been there. White noise worked for us, I popped my baby in the carrycot and left him in front of the washing machine which seemed to help.

Hang in there!

...and the sling, too. Good luck!

Support the sling suggestion - something comfy for you both like a wrap. I pop DD in her sling at first signs of tiredness even at 14 months. At 7 weeks she rarely left the sling and would drift in and out of sleep all day as she needed - saved my sanity!

Thank you all for your great advice and comforting words on Saturday! Used your great suggestions - 'whiting out' (although we did it in a pitch black room instead), white noise, shooshing in her ear, squats etc. - and she finally fell asleep in arms, where we let her stay for an hour or so and then put her to bed. She slept normally after that (her normal is waking every two/three hours at night).

After what felt like the worst day ever we've gone on to have a couple of good days, where she's actually gone down in her moses basket for long naps! (I hope it's not just residual tiredness from Saturday.)

We've basically tried resolutely putting her to sleep through rocking etc. after she's been up for an hour, even if she didn't seem overtly tired. She seems to go down a lot better since we've started doing that, and even broke her colicky nightmare hour in the evening yesterday! I'm starting to think everything that we thought was wrong (i.e. colic, reflux, lactose overload) was just her constantly being too tired and overstimulated and we just never noticed.

Or it could just be a phase and she could be completely different tomorrow.

Anyway just wanted to say a massive thank you!