Over Stimulating?

[Juniper]

I am trying to get my daughter on a schedule, and it has been asked of me if I may be over stimulating her, as she has a hard time staying asleep when I put her down.  I play with her when she is awake, how do I know if I'm over stimulating her?? And how do I play with her too much? I'm not quite understanding that part, I always thought you needed to give them lots of love and attention.

[Erin M]

You definitely need to give a baby lots of love and attention, it just depends on how that love and attention is delivered. 

How old is your dd?  If she's old enough to have control of her head, you'll know that she's getting overstimulated if she turns her head away from you and doesn't meet your gaze when you look at her.  With my 5 mo, she'll turn away to stare at the wall or something like that when she's getting overstimulated (we especially notice this with her dad, if I'm holding her she may look away from him and bury her face in my shoulder). 

You also have to look at the kinds of activities -- seeing lots of faces, toys with lots of music, lights, etc all can be very overstimulating to a baby -- with mine, they would either turn away or get really worked up and not be able to calm down again without a whole lot of assistance.

HTH!