Overtired baby

Sleepy cues aren’t as reliable once they pass the newborn stage. I recommend sticking to a schedule with appropriate wake windows for her age! Do you have a schedule for her now?

I’m finding a schedule hard to work out. She never wakes up at the same time. So we try to go by the same wake window after wake up - usually about 2.5 hours (she’s 7 months) We have a routine before naps and bed. But I can’t seem to get her to nap more than 30-45 min. So that affects the next wake window etc. I feel like if her naps were longer, two naps would be ideal for her. But we can never do two because two half hour naps aren’t enough to get her to bedtime.. and this cycle continues..

Sleep training is what helped us! We had him sleep trained by 41/2 months for over night and it’s been magic. He has always kind of struggled with his naps so we did the 20 minute gentle wake with worked to extend his naps for about 2 months. Then it stopped working so I did sleep training for his naps as well. The first week was rough but we are a month is and he naps like a dream 2.5 hours during the day and 12 hours over night. If he ever does wake he talks a little then goes back to sleep

Im so sorry your going through this xo.

I know we think something simple should be easy but most of the time it is not. Please dont beat up yourself.

Have you tried huckleberry app? Maybe baby needs more schedule. Huckleberry app helps me track how long baby is awake. And i do wake up Gideon on day sleep(no more than 7am) and naps (if over 2hrs)

Okay so what I’m gonna recommend is waking baby at the same time every morning. I know they say “never wake a sleeping baby” but I wake my girl every morning at 8am and our schedule is the exact same every single day. It’s actually fantastic. So the short naps are probably because those are the length of her wake windows and she’s not sure how to fall back asleep on her own. Because she can’t like roll over and resettle if she’s contact napping. The short naps might also be because there isn’t enough sleep pressure to sleep longer if that makes sense. Sometimes you need to do an early bedtime if the naps are short and then they will make up that lost sleep overnight.

second to this!!! I wake up Gideon too after 7am.

what kind of sleep training did you do? I find it so hard to listen to her cry… also, these courses seem so expensive and I’ve asked around locally with quotes of over $700.. that’s not really in the cards right now🙃

If you want to try 2 naps I recommend waking at a certain time every day, and starting with 2.5/3/3.5 or 3/3/3 for your wake windows. Also recommend naps in the crib moving forward or where ever baby sleeps at night. Give it a few days and you should see naps and overnight sleep improve!

do you use the paid version of huckleberry?
Thank you for the support. My family is hours away. I don’t have a village and it’s so hard..

I also use huckleberry and it’s fantastic, the free version is all you need!

she used to wake consistently at 8am. Now it’s anywhere between 6-7:30am. So I can’t wake her at the same time, because she’s waking earlier than what I think her wake up time should be and she will not go back to sleep 😭
I’m not sure how to teach her how to settle herself because I can’t seem to get her to not contact nap.
I totally get what you’re suggesting, I just have no idea how to start implementing it.. I’m just beating myself up because I literally don’t even know where to start

I use the free since he was born. I did use the paid app this month since i had a hard time to guage when he was dropping his 3rd nap.

I know the feeling mine is 24hrs flight away 😅. This group save my sanity im telling yah.

Try to have your baby on a schedule that would work for your household.

And also some babies are FOMO and need less sleep. I know its challenging to entertain babies 4hrs straight 😅😑.

Feel free to DM me if you need to rant. I lose my marble during leap since nap is always out of the window.

There’s a group on fb called respectful sleep training/learning and they are so so helpful! So many good guides on different sleep training methods.

Take one step at a time. Do one change at a time so you know what change work or not. :)

I did a very gentle method. I would let him cry for a minute before going in and soothing him. Then when I would leave after he was settled I waited for 2 minutes the next time he cried. I just did that until he settled. Everyday you keep extending it. So if the first night he went to sleep after 8 minutes of crying the next day 8 minutes is you’re starting point. It worked within like 4 days.

With the nap sleep training I had no choice but to just let him cry. I was super sick off something I ate and couldn’t leave the bathroom. He cried for 35 minutes which killed me. His second nap was 20 minutes. I was crying because I couldn’t go to him. But the second day was 10 minutes for his first nap and then his second nap was 5 minutes. Now if he does cry it’s maybe for a minute then he moves around until he’s back to sleep

30 to 45 min naps are actually pretty good if baby is getting them often enough. My girl usually has 40 min naps but her wake windows are shorter than for her age, sometimes only 1.5 hrs. I'd try shortening the first wake window of the day to see if that helps with sleep. Some babies need more sleep (or less, though that doesn't sound like yours since shes unhappy). So try going for more naps, and an earlier bedtime.

My daughter wakes at 630ish and will have up to 4 naps before bedtime at 6pm and usually won't be cranky.

You're not failing though, it's hard but they don't come with an instruction manual. Take it one day at a time. I know it's difficult but she will not be scarred for life while you figure it out.

Also, there's nothing inherentlu wrong with contact naps. If that's how she naps for now, work with it. We cosleep and I will contact nap her to sleep and then sneak away after she's been asleep 10 mins. Some babies just need more contact, and I promise you, she will outgrow it (my 12 year old son was a contact napper velcro baby and is super independent now you would not be able to guess he was ever a velcro baby).

thank you.. maybe she just needs more frequent, shorter naps. Everything I’ve read talks about 1.5-2 hour naps, maybe I just got stuck on a number that doesn’t work for her..

Eventually babies usually will have longer naps but they'll consolidate naps when they are developmentally ready, or they may always be shorter nappers. High sleep needs babies will want more frequent naps (ie shorter wake windows) even after they start to have longer naps. Every baby is different and as I said no instruction manuals, we have to figure it out lol, but you will and you're doing your best!

I joined this group and just following the suggested wake windows (no sleep training) has made a HUGE difference!! Thank you sooo much ❤️😭

Omg yay!!! I’m so happy for you! 🥰 so happy I could offer some guidance