chronically overtired 7 months old

[Aga06]

hi,
My 7 months old girl is chronically overtired, she is taking forever to fall asleep at naps and napping around 36 minutes only. She will not go back to sleep after that although she is trying to settle, rubbing her eyes, suckling her thumb or comforter, moving hear head side to side, etc.
She is going down for bedtime OK so far but she is waking up past 4 or 5 am obviously not rested, yawing, rubbing her eyes and trying to go back to sleep but no success.
She is also frequently hiccuping, sneezing, coughing due to overtiredness. Before that we had fine routine with 2 hours awake time. Now it seems impossible to go back to that. She can only handle 2 hours awake time but showing tiredness signs any time before that(even after wake up). I put her down immediately but she is taking forever to fall asleep, even over 2 hrs! I started putting her in the swing.Often in the swing she will sleep longer but again will take much time to fall asleep and so she is awake for over 2 hrs. Rocking her does not always seem to work as she is not able to fall asleep easily and getting irritated. I tried shortening her awake time to get her more sleep, making more naps and making early bed time but naps are just impossible! She will not nap more than 2 or 3 times a day it seems sad Also it takes forever for her to fall asleep....
Sometimes shes awake for 4 hours or more, obviously tired, sneezing, hiccuping and coughing. I do not know what else to do. Please can anyone advise!

[deb]

Hiccuping & coughing can be signs of reflux, which would make being horizontal painful for her. Have you had her checked for it? At the very least, make sure it's been at least 20-30 minutes after any food or drink before you put her down, see if it makes a difference. Most babies w/reflux outgrow it by 4 months or so, but some have it far longer, even up to 4YO.

Can you post your EASY, such as it is?

[Aga06]

Hi Deb,

Wouldn't she be showing any signs of pain or irritation during feeding if it was reflux? She does not seem in pain or uncomfortable. And yes I do burp yer after feeding. However she is always showing rubbing eyes, hiccups, sneezing and coughing and she also has dark circles which is heart breaking to look at. She started these hiccuping, sneezing etc since she started having trouble falling asleep at naps and taking much time. Then I concluded she needed 2.5hrs awake time and let her stay that long after which she did not fall asleep but would grizzle. I did also try letting her stay awake for 3hrs with same result. And so she has been staying since than for more than 5 hours struggling to fall asleep no matter what time put down. Since then it went worse napwise and now even her night sleep is getting affected. I think I must have exhausted her letting her stay awake that long. It has been like that since she was 5.5 months old....

[Aga06]

Also at the moment we do not have any routine, rather mess. She can wake up any time after 4 am or 5am and is yawing, rubbing eyes, moving head to sides to go back to sleep but of course she cant. She can spend hour or more trying to sleep back. I am feeding her by 6am, and trying to put her back to sleep if she is like 2hr awake. She will take more than 2 hours to fall asleep or more. Nap only 36mins or so. Then I am letting her stay 30mins more in bed. She isnt sleeping anymore o course. Then bottle and putting her down after 1hrs as the catnap is making her tired. And so on.

Today routine was like this:
wu 4.46 am, she couldnt settle to sleep more so I put her on the swing to extend her night sleep.
5.50am - 7.05am slept in swing, then bottle & baby rice
played a bit & put her in the swing for nap by 8.30am but she fell asleep 9.50am till 11.05am (yawing, rubbing eyes, moving head to sides, suckling thumb etc)
on wake up bottle & play. Put her back in swing by 12.30, she slept 13.18 to 14.35
on wake up bottle & solids, play.
put her for the last nap by 15.50 but she fell asleep 16.45 and slept till 17.20!
on wake up bottle, then after a while solids and quiet time, aiming at 19.20 bedtime.
Shes not asleep untill 20.38!!

night wake up & early morning wake up is guaranteed!

[deb]

Actually, my first baby fed very frequently BECAUSE of the reflux - the milk was soothing the burn.

For the early waking, I'd try holding hr to sleep again if that's what it took to get ME sleep too (I did that w/baby #1 as well, come to think of it) and get her some more restorative sleep before she wakes for the day. Her first A time will be short because she's already tired, but a short A time leads to a short nap, and the cycle perpetuates.

I'd definitely investigate the Reflux angle...is there a Mod who can find the Reflux101 post?