Help! Overtired 4 month old!!

[Charlottie83]

Hi everyone! This is my first post here and desperate for help please!

My daughter is 19 weeks old and has become overtired and upset during the day :(
Basically in the last few weeks i have helped her to fall asleep on her own instead of while nursing. 3 weeks ago she started to have a morning nap lasting 1hr 30 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes (all other naps are 30 minutes) this lasted 2 weeks and now for the last week all naps have gone back to 30 minutes APART from her last nap which she has around 5/5.30pm which now lasts 1 hour (had to wake her up as she goes to bed at 7.30)

Im guessing this last nap she is trying to start her nights sleep? So she needs an earlier bedtime? If so how to i work this around her naps?
How do i help her to start napping longer again?
Last night she slept 7.30-12.30 then woke every hour on the hour until 6.30am.

If more information is needed please let me know xx

Have you read anything about the four month sleep regression OP? It doesn't happen to everyone, but it does happen. My son started waking at 3,4,5am pretty regularly from about this age. My daughter is 16 weeks so it's all ahead of us!

Be kind to yourself. She will regulate herself in a little while but it's going to be rough til she gets there. Nap when you can, keep doing what you're doing with plenty of cuddles and it will work itself out. She's still so little. Get some rest during the day if you can.

Sleep gets all thrown out of whack when anything happens - teething, developmental leaps, minor illnesses etc. A bump in the road here isn't necessarily indicative of her whole sleep pattern being thrown out forever.

Thank you for replying!
Sleep went to pot when she was 12 weeks old (she was born 2 weeks late for perfect timing for the wonder weeks leap at 14 weeks based on due date) things only just started getting better a week or so ago but now we've had a bad few days?
Can't go through that again!! :( xx

A lot of babies go through a sleep regression at 4 months. Good news is it doesn't last forever but the bad news is that it can go on for several weeks. Also have you ruled out a growth spurt?

Short naps are still common at 4 months so it's really important to ensure you adjust awake time and frequency of naps to minimise overtiredness which contributes to night wakings and short naps.

Sounds like you should move bedtime earlier for the time being. My 4 month old dd is a short napper so she goes to bed somewhere between 6pm to 7pm. Depends what time she woke up from last nap.

You don't say what length awake times are between naps. For my dd wake times during the day are usually around 1-1.5hrs and she may nap around 4-5 times at the moment (depending on morning wake up time). I spend the whole day putting her down for naps and it can be hard to get stuff done but I know it's not forever. My other dcs started having longer naps around 6 months.

You could try nap extensions but tbh I never had any luck with these (and you may have limited success during 4 month period as it's a major development phase). I just waited for mine to out grow them.

Feel your pain! Similar situation here. DD's sleep went bad around week 12 (but she was a week late so could be a wonder week) and still bad at 15 weeks and getting worse. Think this is the 4 month regression. Thought i'd be used to the soul destroying exhaustion but obviously not! Come join us on the 4 month sleep regression thread - plenty of hand holding going in there!