Author Topic: Overtired Baby  (Read 3478 times)

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Offline Kaylee's Mom

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Overtired Baby
« on: July 19, 2007, 02:22:36 am »
Does anyone know any tricks that will get an over tired baby to sleep at night? Our Kaylee is 6 weeks old. She usually starts to get fussy around 1:00pm and then won't sleep until 10:00 or 11:00 at night. By this time she is so over tired that it is really hard to but her down. Sometimes she has gone 12 or 13 hours straight without sleeping. It seems that all we do all afternoon and night is try to get her to sleep.

Offline stef33

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2007, 16:10:20 pm »
Do you try to get her to sleep when you see the sleep signs?

Do you have a bed routine?

Did you tried shhh/pat


Offline mscald

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2007, 19:36:32 pm »
Sounds like my LO..can't believe anyone else has a baby that could stay awake for 12 hrs! With our DD, i misread all the signs because she was soo alert and she didn't yawn that much initially. She would get really big eyes which i figured out much later was her first sign of fatigue and she didn't fuss that much if you held her. I was letting her fall asleep on my breast or in the swing out of desperation because i knew she needed to be sleeping. Within a day of starting EASY, she was napping for 45-60 minutes 4 times a day and was really responding to the plan. I also learned alot about her own cues and now I know exactly when to put her down to avoid the vicious overtired cycle. We have never seen those 12 hr awake periods since the day we started her on EASY at 7 wks. The nighttime is still rough..up every 2-3 hrs but hopefully this will get better in time. Good luck!

Offline Kaylee's Mom

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2007, 21:44:39 pm »
What is EASY? How do I do this. Yesterday she was up from 1:00pm until 12:14am with only a 20 and a 15 minute nap. We just started putting on the vacum cleaner as this quiets her down and then we can get her to nap but that is only a temporary solution. She still wakes up 15 minutes later. I found a web site were you can download baby sleep noises today. Seem to work ok http://www.babysleepnoise.com/download.html
As for the Shh/pat thing, doesn't seem to work that good. There is not much she likes. She hates her car seat, vibrating chair, swing, crib, stroller, playpen. Sometimes she will sit in them for a minute beform she screams like crazy. The one thing we found she kind of like is the hip hugger but we don't want her getting used to this.

Offline stef33

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2007, 22:20:50 pm »
EASY is a routine
E for Eating
A for activity
S for sleep
Y for you

you should set a routine for your lo and you can find a lot of usefull info in the EASY forum (I don't know how to link the info, I will try)https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=82.0

if you do this, you will see the signs the baby show you, before she gets fussy (that mean she is already overtired)

Your baby is ready to sleep at certain moment in the day, and send you information, if you are aware of these info, she will sleep much more better and longer.

Offline nursekat

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2007, 18:09:03 pm »
Hi Kaylee's Mom I highly recommend buying or checking out Tracy Hogg's books to help with your situation.  There is a lot of information on this website but it is based on the "introduction" knowledge and the assumption that everybody has read her first book and knows the basics.  No need to buy it, most libraries carry copies as well.

HTH!


Offline mscald

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2007, 05:04:50 am »
I second reading her book..everything will make a lot more sense to you. The main thing is getting your DD on a structured routine..you will probably see that she does not hate all those things you mentioned..she's just overtired now and they are overstimulating and exacerbating the situation. My DD will hang out in her swing for 30 minutes on her own now that she is rested in the day but she would scream after 5 minutes before we started EASY.

Are you breastfeeding? Do you let your DD fall asleep on your breast? That was where I was going wrong. We were so desperate to have her sleep that I would let her sleep on me all the time and if she was crying I would resort to the breast since its the only thing that consoled her..though now I know she was tired not hungry. Then when I would try and put her down she would wake up wide eyed. Now I know, the wide eyes did not mean she was ready to be awake but at the time it seemed like she had enough sleep..was never really that fussy until later in the evening. Anyways, here's what I did accoring to the EASY plan. (EAT/Activity/Sleep/You time)

Day starts at 7:00 (plus or minus depending when she wakes up). Feed her and then follow with awake/activity time. At 6 weeks this would be 45 -60 minutes from start of feed. So if my LO fed for 20 minutes, I would follow up with another 25-40 minutes of "A " time (change diaper, get dressed, walk around and talk to her, swing etc...) At this point I would observe closely and at the first yawn or cry I would get her into her swaddle and start winding her down for her nap. Before the plan I did this wherever we were, watching TV etc. But I found going to the same place each time (her nursery), in quiet, made a big difference and she responded beautifully and immediately with falling asleep. I also started putting her down in her crib each time instead of the swing, the playpen, our bed..wherever etc. She would typically sleep for 30-45 minutes and then jolt herself awake so I would stay nearby and go in and sshh/pat her while she was in her crib until she fell asleep again. In the end she, would sleep for 1 1/2 hrs. The EASY plan calls for consistent feeding every 3 hrs at that age. If she woke up before 3 hrs had passed , I give her a little more activity time until her feed is due. Then we feed and the whole routine starts all over again. So the day looks like this.

7:00 EAT(7:20/30 -8:00 activity time)
8:00 wind down for sleep
8:15-10:00 sleep
10:00 EAT (then activity as above)
11:00 wind down for sleep
11:15-1:00 sleep
1:00 EAT (then activity)
2:00 wind down for sleep
2:15-4:00 sleep
4:00 EAT (then activity)

At 6 wks, tracy recommends cluster feeds and dream feeds to help get more calories in your baby and help to increase sleeping for longer periods at night. So the plan would continue as follows:

5:15-6:00 catnap
6:00 feed
6:30 bath, wind down
7:00pm asleep for the night.
10:00/10:30 dream feed

One thing I learned from these boards which helped a lot was thinking of your baby's day as a twelve hour day. So if she wakes at 7 she should be in bed by 7pm. Otherwise, you will definitively be causing your baby to become more overtired.(which is what we were doing since she never seemed to settle down before 10pm ).
 
We're still working on improving nighttime sleep so I can't speak to that but as for better napping, better tempermant , and better sanity for all, the EASY plan has ben so helpful. Hope this was helpful to you and good luck.


Offline Kaylee's Mom

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2007, 16:46:59 pm »
Thanks, Yes I am breasfeeding but my little Kaylee likes to sleep longer than the 2 hours, she usually likes a 3 hr nap and the active time this morning was 25 minutes we got her down at 8:30ish last night and I did the dream feed at 10:30 and she slept until 5:00AM I just started this EASY routine yesterday, with teh active time that we were not giving her she is napping better well for the two days so far.  I don't let her fall asleep on my breast although she sometimes does, this morning she did at her second feeding after the first feeding she fell asleep and slept for 2 hours I believe and ate had her active time and now is in her 3 hr nap.  In the afternoon she naps 3-4 hours I tried waking her up two weeks ago every three hours but that didn't work so I am afraid to attempt it again, she was very overtired and kept ups up from 1 in the afternoon until 1,2,3 in the morning, for the napping time do you count when she falls asleep or go by your start feed time and count the three hours? before I was couting from feed time three hours and that didn't work for her, I think she needs more sleep than the two hours but I could be wrong..this motherhood thing is all new and is starting to come together abit I think ??? It doesn't take an hour to feed her it only takes around 20 minutes and she is done.. I think I should try limiting her naps to the 2 hours but am really afraid we will end up in the same boat we were in a couple of weeks ago.. what to do...  She has abit of acid reflux too which I think spacing out her meals abit more helps her, she is on something like Zantac and since we starting giving her that it seems to have gotten abit better.  Could every baby be different and need more sleep or should I try the two hour limit on the sleep time? I really want to get her routined but the dr says I shouldn't and go with her but I can't stand the long nights anymore so I am slowly trying to get her on some sort of routine before I go bonkers and so far it is kind of working.

Offline Kaylee's Mom

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2007, 16:49:53 pm »
What is the book called that I should read by Tracy Hogg?

Offline nursekat

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2007, 20:55:39 pm »
Every baby is definitely different, Tracy really encourages starting with a generalized "typical" routine but ultimately following your baby's cues to find what her internal "routine" is. 

The first book is "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby" - the other book that I highly recommend is "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems: Sleeping, Feeding, and Behavior--Beyond the Basics from Infancy Through Toddlerhood" - it goes into a lot more detail on her methods. 

And of course, you can always come here and join the group!  :D
 


Offline Kaylee's Mom

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2007, 22:38:59 pm »
Thanks, well our afternoon is a bit messed up she had 2- 45 minutes naps and is now on another one and is very tired, cries with eyes glued shut! Hopefully she has abit of a nap right now or else we are in big trouble.  She is almost 11lbs and will be 7 weeks this Tuesday, should she be feeding every three hours or four? This is just day two trying the EASY out and so far it is going ok but not 100% it will take time...  How long did it take for your little one to adapt to it? we had a very early morning today and therefore our day didn't start until around 9/10AM she was up at 4:00 ate and went back to sleep around 5:00 once it was all finished with changing eating and getting her back in and settled and sleeping.  Feeding after the cap naps is hard it is like she isn't satisified with the feeding like I don't have enough for her..

Offline nursekat

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2007, 15:57:13 pm »
At this age it is good to have a 3 hr Easy.  The routie posted above looks great. 

My dd took a while to get into a good pattern because she had jaundice and wanted to sleep all the time.  That and it was very easy for her to cross into the realm of overtiredness.  You might find feeding goes better in the evening if she is well rested.  It is also possible if you are extremely tired that you might not have a great supply in the evening either.  You might want to post a topic on the BF boards on that one.


Offline Kaylee's Mom

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2007, 01:53:01 am »
When does it switch to a 4 hr routine? Just curious...

So far day 3 it is going ok with EASY yesterday she was in bed at around 12:30am and tonight we will see what happens the night sbefore that she didn't get to sleep till around 3AM..

I bought the two books and have started to look them over..Need to get the Y in EASY to look them over if I am not napping!  ;)

Offline nursekat

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2007, 03:47:41 am »
The 4 hr routine usually is about 4 months, there is a section in the EASY FAQs that discusses when to switch from 3 to 3.5 to 4 hrs...

Napping is the PERFECT way to spend Y time in my opinion, LOL!  ;D


Offline Kaylee's Mom

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Re: Overtired Baby
« Reply #14 on: July 24, 2007, 23:40:52 pm »
Yah napping is good Y time for sure! Where is the EASY FAQ's that your talking about? on this site or in the books?