What do I do with an overtired baby?

[Meatball Mommie]

Ok, let me preface this by saying that I'm an overtired mommy trying to deal with an overtired baby :(

Has anyone had a problem like this? My DS is 4 mo old and IMO horribly overtired. I kept track of the hrs that he slept for the past 2 days and he only slept 10.5 hrs one day and 11.75 hrs another. During the day he only sleeps in 30 min increments and falls asleep at the breast but wakes up the instant I put him down in his bassinet (& cries). The past 2 nights have been from hell. The longest he slept was 2.5 hrs at a time! He was doing so well (even slept from 9 to 5 a couple of times). What happened and how can I "fix" this? I a totally exhausted and frustrated myself and have little or no help from my DH (I am mad at him at the moment which I won't get into).

I think that DS was colicky (or at the very least VERY fussy) for the first 3 months of his life and we spent a lot of time holding and shushing him. Now I think that he has no ability to self soothe. Plus, I am tired of holding him constantly (does that make me a horrible mommy?)

I am sorry this is rambling, but I am not thinking coherantly at this moment! Any help is appreciated. I have read Weissbluth's book but DS will cry for over an hour if I let him, so what am I doing wrong?

[cchavez]

OMG! Your son sounds so much like my DS. Please just give him time and be consistent w/ your soothing routine.Make sure his intervals of wakefulness are short and watch for signs of tiredness. This may mean that you may not be able to go out much b/c you want him to nap at home...not on the run for the most part. I follow Weissbluth but I rarely let my DS CIO. Your DS is a post colicky baby and is probably not ready to cio. If I had let Diego CIO at 3 months or even 4 it would have never worked for him. The best you can do is be consistent w/ your soothing routine and it time you will see that you can put him down in his crib and he will fall asleep on his own. BTW, DS was about 3.5 months when we stoppped letting hime nap in his PNP and put him in his cribs for naps. So it might be time to try the crib...it made a huge difference. He has always slept in his crib at nite.

Anyway, Diego (7 mos) now falls asleep on his own at nite and sleeps about a 10-11 hour stretch. Not every nite is blissful but you will see improvment but there will be setbacks too. Just be patient.

Oh, naps are still not the greatest and I have to rock him to sleep for his naps but at least the nite time has improved.

good luck!

[Karenn]

Karen,
I've been in your shoes and it's a hard place to be! Christine gave you a lot of good advice. One other thing that helped us was consistent nap times. That's a really tricky thing to figure out when you're also trying to keep the periods of wakefulness short, but once I was actually able to make it happen, it turned out to be a really important part of Colin's sleeping better. When Colin was the same age as your DS, he would take 4 or 5 naps per day instead of the ususal 3 because his naps were always so short. If you can try to make those naps happen at close to the same time every day, he might have an easier time falling asleep and staying asleep. In the last few months I've learned that those sleep/wake cycles are far more important than I ever gave them credit for.

Also, if he naps longer in your arms during the day, and it's practical, you might try that a few days in a row and see if it helps him get caught up on his sleep. I know you'd like to have your arms free once in a while, but sometimes a few days of sleep in my arms helps get Colin back on track.

I know all of this is much easier said than done, but it will get easier for you. Hang in there!

Wishing you much rest and good luck!

[JElaineB]

Your DS sounds like my DS was, though he never had colic. He never, I mean never, napped in the crib until he was 9 months old. Now he naps fine, he just finally matured into being able to nap in his crib at that age. He didn't nap in the bassinet either when he was young for more than 30 minutes at a time. So I also held him much of the time while he was napping. Do you have a recliner? I used to nap in the recliner, holding him while he napped. Also, if he wouldnt' go back to sleep in the crib at night once he woke up I would take him down and sleep with him in the recliner. Have you tried the bouncy seat for naps? For a while I could get DS to nap in the bouncy seat for up to two hours with the vibration turned on. DS's sleep patterns got much more consistent around 9 months old and he now sleeps about 11 hours a night and naps 1.5-2 hours during the day, all in his crib.

Just try to hang in there, he should eventually outgrow this! Just try to sleep when he sleeps, whenever or whereever it is.

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02