I recently posted asking about routines for a 4 month old baby and got some really useful replies - however, I'm still struggling with understanding why my little girl acts the way she does.
We're having more and more issues with daily meltdowns which I think are definitely tiredness related but cannot figure out how to help her.
When she is awake she is lots of fun, full of laughs and smiles, but her meltdowns are so frequent and I really need to work out how I can help her. Here is a typical day for us (this was today so far)...
7:00 get up (sometimes she is awake before this)
Put mobile over her crib while I get ready - she loves this
7:15- 8:00ish -play - greay fun - looking out for sleepy signals
8:00 - starts going into a potential meltdown, manage to get her to sleep in my arms but a lot of crying first
8:00 - 8:40 - asleep in my arms
8:40 - 9:40 - play
9:40 starts big meltdown, hysterically crying, try to soothe, only works momentarily or not at all. Appears tired, rubbing eyes nose etc, try to rock to sleep, feed to sleep, put in crib on side and pat - nothing works (could she be undertired??)
9:50 -put her on her playmat
10:10 - starting to cry and get worked up again like she is overtired. Again try to soothe and to put to sleep in various ways - nothing works - gets more worked up.
10:45 - Put her in the pram, weather too bad to go out but try rocking etc, still awake and trying to find anything in pram to look at.
10:55 - try again in crib, this time she gives in and sleeps
11:30 wakes up but in bad mood (needs more sleep?) breastfeed (which I do on demand during the day) try again to put to sleep but again resisting.
11:45 - 12:40 - play - starts to show tired signs
12:40 - starts meltdown, crying hysterically etc - try rocking to sleep / putting down in cot etc - nothing working
1:00 - put her down on her playmat
1:20 - starting to cry and get upset again
1:30 -put her in the sling where she cries and fusses but eventually sleeps
And that is where we are right now (2pm here in Ireland)
Has anyone else had this experience with their baby? She is now 4 months old but she has been like this for at least the past month.
Her night sleep isn't great, but not awful. We do a bedtime routine and she normally goes down easily after I breastfed her at 7pm, on a good night she will wake around 11 and then maybe one or two more times. Sometimes she will be very hard to re-settle and can be kicking around in her crib for a long time while I try to help her, other times not too bad.
She is our first baby and I am really struggling to read her cues for naps. She very very rarely ever simply gets tired and falls asleep herself, but if i didn't try to get her to sleep she would go for hours getting more and more worked up.....
Really hoping someone has had a similar experience and can give me some insight or suggestions!
Thanking you in advance!