8 month old overtired?
I know the concept of overtiredness is controversial, but my baby still seems tired after just about every nap and is totally wired by bedtime, so I’m becoming convinced this is why she’s waking so much during the night.
She wakes between 6 and 7am. (I’d love 7, personally, but 6:30 is fine, too.) I have a lovely theoretical schedule that would have her waking at 6:30 and napping 9:45-11 and 2:15-3:30 with bedtime between 7:30 and 8, but she often makes one of those naps only 30 minutes long, which throws everything off. Yesterday she had an accidental early afternoon car nap that continued in the crib, and she was up for 6 hours before falling asleep at 8pm. (I tried to get her a cat nap around 4:30, but she wasn’t having it.)
Night sleep was great from months 2 to 6ish (she often slept through the night), but it’s been a disaster the last couple months. I was up with her 5 times last night. She isn’t hungry in the night (she gets a last feeding around 9:30 or 10, but the other wakes she goes back to sleep on my shoulder as soon as I pick her up). I’ve tried capping naps and extending wake windows, but like I said, she seems so tired, so I’m trying the other direction. Does she need a super early bedtime?? What do I do when a nap is short but she still seems tired? (Sometimes I can rock her back to sleep, but often she’s too awake for that.) Help!