9 week old - overtired and won't sleep

[Nurse15]

Have a 9 week old who up till now has been a pretty good daytime napper - getting more and more short now and waking after 20 mins or so and crying. She is totally exhausted and her eyes are always heavy but she refuses to sleep. Have spent all day with her in her cot in a dark room to try and get her at least one days good sleep in order to help her over this over tiredness but to no avail - she's still awake now from 3pm. We've tried holding her, rocking, placing in the cot while still awake, white noise, lullaby and still she refuses to sleep and just cries. She won't feed any more either so she isn't hungry! No idea what to do to make her sleep or how to get out of the vicious over tired but won't sleep cycle

Oh you poor thing. DD1 was sometimes like this. (Assuming no pain or illness) I would feed her and then we would stick her in the sling/pram and walk around outside. There would be a bit of crying but eventually she would sleep. A couple of times we walked past the pub and drank a calming glass of wine outside while she snoozed as she always woke up when we got home! An hour of sleep outside was long enough to get her out of the awake cycle though. Good luck. It's so hard when they are exhausted like that but can't fall asleep.

Is she quite windy, or possibly has reflux at all? I used to walk mine in the buggy/pram until she fell asleep then had to put the front wheels up a little on something so the pram was tilted in order to get her to sleep, she had really bad wind that would keep her awake...

Thanks for the replies - taking her out in her pram seems to make it worse she screams the entire village down! She does have reflux and is on ranitidine which seems to have settled her symptoms well down - she was gulping and coughing with it before which she isn't doing anymore thankfully :)

Have you got a bouncy chair?

What baby wants is rhythmic consistant and relentless movement. Be utterly relentless and increasing about it.

Reduce awake time (from waking from 1 nap to being asleep the next) to no more than an hour. Keep it in the 40-50 minute range ideally.

After about 40 minutes awake put baby (having been fed and winded) in the bouncer and the bouncer on the floor at your feet while you sit on the sofa.

Have a cuppa in your hand and the tclv remote. And just be relentless about keeping the bouncing going and not giving in until baby is asleep.

If there's crying, add a dummy. Keep eeinserying dummy as needed. Be relentless about keeping going, from 40m awake time all the time until asleep.

Don't be worried by short (30-45m naps), it's normal. Just limit awake time.

Bouncy chair

Thanks fate, I have a swing for her that's battery powered and rocks her but even that overstimulated her and she just won't sleep. I put her straight to sleep after feeding to reduce her awake time (in theory!)

Do you have a sling? I'd give her a bit of calpol and take her for a cool walk in a sling. Otherwise, if she's not hungry, pass her to DH and he can take her for a walk while I get some sleep!

Can you pop DD in her car seat and take her for a drive?

My baby is also 9 weeks and I second the bouncy chair. I pop her in at first yawn and then bounce relentlessly for at least 20 minutes. She'll sleep for around 40 minutes and sometimes I can get her through to the next sleep cycle by bouncing but that's usually for at least 20 minutes. Once I've got her through that she sleeps for hours- I've been known to move her to car seat, pram and back to car seat for the school run without her stirring. But that's with over an hour of bouncy chair first. Hope it improves!