How to deal with overtired baby (15 weeks)?

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I'm sure this has been done a million times but DD2 really, really battles sleep during the day. She's pretty good at night (the bath, feed, lullaby etc seems to do the trick) but during the day she gets more and more tired and then just cries and cries (I pick her up, she cries, I put her down, she cries, I rock her she cries, I try to feed her she cries) - have tried dummies etc but to no avail, sometimes she'll fall asleep after sucking my little finger but it doesn't always work and even if it does I also have a toddler to deal with so being bent over a cot with my finger in her mouth isn't really that practical.

Now, on occasions when I've left her to cry (not by choice BTW but for example when she's been in the pram screaming and me rushing home so I can pick her up and give her my finger) she'll literally drop off mid-wail. I hate the idea of leaving her to cry when she's this tiny but when I know it's definitely tiredness and rocking etc doesn't help what other option is there? Anyone found a good solution to this?

i am looking for an answer to this too!! my 11 week old really fights daytime sleep. she naps for about 20-30mins only, unless she has fallen asleep in th car in which case i laeve her to sleep in the car seat. i also have a 3.5 year old so cant spend too much time picking up and putting down baby technique for daytim nap. any ideas??

i am looking for an answer to this too!! my 11 week old really fights daytime sleep. she naps for about 20-30mins only, unless she has fallen asleep in th car in which case i laeve her to sleep in the car seat. i also have a 3.5 year old so cant spend too much time picking up and putting down baby technique for daytim nap. any ideas??

try white noise of some kind? dd is 4 months old, has always fallen asleep almost instantly if i put her in car seat in kitchen next to hob extractor fan on full blast

sleeppy baby cd? www.learning-solutions.co.uk/music_for_babies.php

It takes a bit of time so might not be practical for you but this is what works for DS 21 wks -

1. at first yawn or rubbing of eyes I get him onto changing mat for quiet nappy change
2. lie him on our bed and lie with him, give him dummy and muslin to hold onto and read him a story or whisper/sing to him
3. when he starts to look really drowsy then put him in his cot and leave him to fall asleep. sometimes he gets alarmed at this point so I keep talking to him and make sure he's happy before leaving the room.

All together takes 10-20mins depending on how tired he is.

Before this I was loosing my mind trying to get him to sleep in the pushchair etc and he'd cry whenever I put him in his cot (I was putting him in there at the first yawn and I think this was too early for him) but this seems to have really helped him get to sleep peacefully.

If you've got the time it's worth a go - good luck

yankbabymum I'm sure there's something in that, I know the problem is that she's getting too tired. But it's just so tricky giving her a calm sleeping routine during the day when there's a noisy toddler about demanding this and that. Will however try for something a bit more like that in future because it's reassuring to know it actually works! Tonight after screaming for 10-15 mins she took a dummy and went to sleep on the count of 3 literally! Just thought I'd have a go even though she hasn't taken one for ages and it actually worked...

ladysanders and ohmeohmy thanks also for the audio suggestions - couldn't think of an appropriate white noise appliance to use tonight but will bear in mind for future!

you can buy cds of white noise - or download from itunes if you've got an ipod - type in white noise into search and it'll give you a few choices - we have 'ocean waves' on repeat all blimmin night long as its the closest sound to our extractor fan...

cbeebees is your best friend - pop your toddler in front of it when you settle baby. keep the room dark and quiet. what might help is a muslin with your smell (wrap it around your belly over night).

My Ds is exactly the same now 12wk.

Finding this hard as my first two dcs have both self settled easily and although hard to remember when but im sure they were doing it by now!

In the day if i hold him upright when i know hes tired he drops off then i can put him down and he will stay asleep for hours sometimes!

But in the evening i find im trying to get him to sleep from 7ish untill gone 10 some nights..im starting to find it hard work some nihts after a long day with all three the oldest only being 3 herself.

I have wondered this week if i was to just put him down even if he cried a bit whether he would drop off!?!

But i feel bad as not always sure if he is tired..if only we could read their minds!
so i end up just picking him up n cuddling him tosleep until he is in a deep sleep..bad habit i know!

My girls have always been in a fairly good routine and im starting to crave it again now. you would have thoughti would no what im doing by now lol

Agree with trying to soothe baby to sleep at first sleepy signs (rock, feed, whatever it takes). If no sleepy signs, try after an hour and a half awake. If not, try at 20 min intervals if you can.

To break the overtired cycle, try a sling. Put them in it before you think they might be tired, go for a walk or out to the park and the motion may soothe them to sleep eventually.

If your DC is around 4 months old, it may be the 4 month sleep regression messing up daytime as well as nighttime sleep.

Don't worry about bad habits at this stage.

Some babies do need to cry for a few minutes before going to sleep, and will do this even while being rocked or fed. See here for more about this, and how to tell if your baby is one of these.

bump, i am having this problem with 9wk old dd, atnight she goes down awake after her milk, fine and makes a few noises, sort of moaning etc and then goes to sleep fine and has two 6hr chunks of sleep at night which is great

during the day, if you catch her at the right time and get her down she will doze off ok but more often than not i end up having to give her a dummy and that doesnt always work, ditto being out in the pram, the sling seems to work best, i have a moby wrap but she is getting heavier and i have four other kids to look after and also her naps are quite short, i think she would be happier if she had a decent sleep? its hard to know really as she hardly slept today but has been happy most of the day until after 4pm when she was MISERABLE and even in the sling with a dummy she was still crying/shouting out until she went to sleep.

i am wondering if its best to just put her down, maybe i am overstimulating her by trying different methods to get her to sleep?

but then in our house with 4 older brothers, school runs, sports clubs, after school activities and toddler groups, its hard for her NOT to be overstimulated!

my first three were all bfed to sleep until about 3 yrs of age, then number 4 sucked his thumb and self soothed, we were AMAZED at how good a sleeper he was and still is!

and now we have dd and like i say she is great at night, but during the day it feels like its getting harder and harder to settle her to sleep, maybe i am trying too hard...

Catch her before she gets too tired (I learnt this eventually but took me ages). It can be as short as an hour after waking, and rarely longer than 2 hours at that age.

By the time mine got to yawning etc they were already over tired. It doesn't have to be quiet for them to sleep - they can fall asleep in a noisy place, but try and get into a routine of putting them in whatever routine place for sleeping before it gets to this stage (and into a sleep sack etc if you are using those).

Also white noise - detuned radio- help them to fall asleep.

yeah i think thats the key, i was hoping today that she would sleep in the pram on the school run, interestingly she will sleep fine in the carrycot on the bugaboo, but doesnt seem to sleep at all well in the underneath bit on the phil and teds, i dont know whether its because its more enclosed and she doesnt like it?

this afternoon, last two hours or so i have had her in the sling with dummy and she kept almost settling to sleep but not quite, i then gave her her feed, have swaddled her and put her in the bugaboo carrycot and it looks like she is dozing off without the dummy! i dont mind her having the dummy, but would rather avoid it so i dont have to keep putting it back in every time it falls out!

and swaddlign also seems to be the key, she likes to be swaddled.

anywho i need to get the four madboys to bed and then wash up, tidy, get pack ups etc etc ready for school tomorrow, so fingers crossed she stays asleep in pram for a bit! and the tv is on in the room she is in, this house is NEVER quiet so she is used to noise!

thanks.

ok so today i put her down for a sleep at 9:30 in bed, and she went off no problems at all, she woke up after 40mins or so and i resettled her and since then she has shouted a few times and i have waited a min or two and peeked in the room and she has just been resettling herself, she seems to need to fuss/shout a bit to sleep? she isnst crying as i would go and comfort her, its more of a shout and she seems to do it every 40mins ish in her sleep and then doze back off? so she went down at 9:30 and is STILL asleep!! i am amazed. it will probably be a one off?

but i def think the key is catching her at the right time and also letting her shout/grizzle a bit, if i try adn help her she gets more worked up and doesnt seem to settle properly at all, but by swaddling her and putting her down in bed (our bed as we co-sleep) she has slept brilliantly!

i think its going to be a learning process and i cant always put her to bed to sleep, she will have to sleep in the sling/pram sometimes, but we shall just see how she goes, its def a case of reading her cues and she def doesnt want to feed to sleep like her brothers did.

I have a feeling 40 minutes is about when they change from one sleep pattern to another - and might be the time when they are most easily disturbed.

If she is learning to settle herself then that is good.

I know with mine if they got to the overtired stage they just wouldn't sleep and got worse.

and that is where we are at now throcken, overtired, she is in a vibrating chair with dummy and that is calming her, but she isnt going to sleep well.

i was hoping she would have a good sleep on the school run its an hour walk but nope she had about ten mins and then was all ooh look things to see, she definitely is fighting sleep if there is ANYTHING going on.

anyhow she should be getting hungry soon and then if the past few evenings are anything to go by she will feed, then i can put her down awake and swaddled and she will go to sleep for the evening, fingers crossed x

My LO easily gets over tired and fights sleep. When she is in this state its REALLY hard to get her to sleep, so when we get to this stage I cuddle or feed to sleep, whatever it takes.

But to prevent this I have to watch her very closely for the signs, which for us are a couple of yawns or rubbing her face & behind her ears.
Then I give her the dummy, put her down (doesn't matter where), cover her with a blanket, and put the musical seahorse on.

50% of the time she goes straight to sleep and every time I am amazed (as this routine follows weeks months of struggling to get the to nap - because she was getting over tired)
The other half the time, I shush and sometimes have to stroke her to help her to drift off.

For us, its definitely keeping a close eye out for the early signs, not just at times when she normally sleeps - if there is lots going on she'll get tired more quickly, if I've been on mumsnet too long and she isn't being entertained as much as she'd like, she'll go for longer without needing a nap.