9 week old stopped napping - overtired help!!

[mcflumpy]

My 9 week old DD has all of a sudden stopped napping during the day. We have just come out the end of a growth spurt so I'm not sure if its realted. Prior to growth spurt she was sleeping 6-8 hours each night and having at least 2 good naps during the day.

Now she/we are all over the place!

Yesterday she wouldn't sleep at all, and only slept 4 hours at night before waking, today again from 11am she has slept a total of around 1.5 hours and my DH is currently upstairs still trying to put her to sleep.

One feed is blurring into another as she is awake all the time.

I know she is exhauseted but don't know what to do! She doesn't cry much only if she really wants something, but any advice as to how to get back on track or why she may be doing this would be appreciated.

Thanks

They just do this sometimes for no reason and it's hell for a few days, then it stops. Sorry if that's not much use!

Have you tried white noise (leaving a hairdryer on) to get her off to sleep?

downloaded white noise app for iphone, unfortunately didn't work. shuushing does work but at the moment I get her to sleep which is realtively easy, getting her to stay asleep is something else.

She is totally zonked when I put her down, then 15 mins later she's awake. We still swaddle her as she's a really restless sleeper at the best of times.

Hopefully it is as you say just something that will pass...thanks.

It is hideous when they get into an overtired cycle but it happens less and less the older they get. Often it signals that their routine is about to change or that they've had a few 'busy' days that they need to process. Or sometimes that they've hit a developmental milestone or growth spurt.

Just do whatever you can to get through it. With the white noise, I often leave it running for the duration of a nap or for a few hours if it's bedtime (switch off at 10pm feed).

Babies keep you on your toes. As soon as you think you are getting the hang of it, they change!

Hi McFlumpy,

I sympathise hugely - it's awful when the little ones get over tired. I had terrible problems trying to get my DD to go to sleep and stay asleep for daytime naps at about your stage. I second Kwaker - I think you just need to do whatever you can to live through it. For me, that was taking DD out in the pram and walking her round the park (the movement seemed to keep her asleep). Or I found that oddly she would stay asleep if I took her in the pram to coffee shops - there was something about the background noise that did it. Or sometimes I could get her to nap longer by putting her in her bouncy chair on top of the tumble dryer. Things did improve. Your DD is still really small. My LO is now 21 weeks and now naps reasonably well. From about 3.5 months I started putting her down in her cot again for naps and after a couple of difficult weeks, she started to settle herself and stay asleep for longer periods. So hang on in there and don't lose hope - this almost certainly will pass.