Reply To: Overtiredness and hyperactivity

[Vivian Kristina]

Hi Emma,

I hope you’re having a good week!

He now only has 5 feeds a day, with one feed upon waking from his last nap around 5pm and no more before bedtime, before I notice that when I did the 2 feeds before bed he didn’t feed much during the last bedtime feed and is more unsettled (he is quite gassy/refluxy and spits up a lot).

My question is, what counts as an awake time – is it crib to crib or when he is truly asleep? How about drowsiness – does that count as sleep? If it’s when he is truly asleep, I notice that his daytime sleep is actually much shorter than average (often totalling 2.5 hours). I often try to lengthen it by not picking him up upon waking (eyes open) but he wouldn’t go back to sleep, but it seems that he’s fine with short catnaps. His nighttime sleep can vary between 10.5-12.5 hours (often with false starts), but usually around 12 hours. He would be awake before the 12 hour mark though (babbling haha) but sometimes can resettle back to a short sleep until 7am.

I’m also wondering if I try to put him down for a last nap but he resisted for more than 20 minutes, what should I do? Do nap attempts count as a nap?

I’m also wondering if tired cues are not always reliable?

Thanks for your help Emma!