Reply To: 9 weeks baby with extreme overtiredness

[Emma H]

Hi Gwendolyn,

It’s wonderful to hear that you’ve found the content and discussions helpful and that you’ve already seen improvements with your newborn.

I understand your concerns about your baby being overtired and how challenging it can be to help him transition to self-settling for better and longer stretches of sleep. Based on what you’ve shared, it seems like you’re on the right track with some great progress already.

Before I can provide specific advice, I was hoping you could answer a few questions to ensure I have a clear picture of what your little one’s days and nights look like. I apologize in advance for the detailed questions, as I know your time is precious with a newborn.

1. Based on what you have written, your son is 10 weeks old? Was he born on time or early?

2. It’s great that you have a set morning wake-up time. It’s not uncommon for the first wake window in the morning to be the shortest of the day. If he wants to go to sleep at 8:30 am, that’s okay. You mentioned that when he goes to sleep at 8:30 am, he then sleeps until 2/3 pm. Is this correct, or is he waking up earlier? If he is sleeping until 2/3 pm, have you tried capping his nap to give him more awake time during the day?

3. What does his day roughly look like? At this age, the timing might be all over the place, which is fine. I’m more interested in how many naps he is having and the length of these naps.

4. It sounds like he is spacing out his feeds now and having larger volumes when he does feed, which is great. From what you have written, it sounds like you might be following a wake, feed, play, feed, and then sleep routine?

5. How are you currently helping him fall asleep? When you answer this one, can you include what his nap and bedtime routine is?

6. Where is he sleeping during the day and the night? For example, is he sleeping in your arms or in a crib? If it is in a crib or sleep space, can you describe the environment?

7. It sounds like he goes to bed at 6 pm. Does he then sleep through until 1 am when he wakes up and continues to wake every hour until 8 am? Or does he go to bed at 6 pm and wake often? If so, what time is he waking, and are you feeding him for any of these wakes?

8. When he wakes overnight and you are feeding him, what is the environment like? For example, are the lights on, is he unswaddled, do you change his diaper (if so, when do you change it), do you burp him, etc.? Knowing this will help me come up with a plan on how you can encourage him to stay awake longer overnight to have larger feeds.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer these questions!

Emma