Constantly tired baby (7 months)

My 7 month old DD is constantly tired. She has always been a catnapper (30-40 min naps) so I attributed her tiredness to her sleeps not being long enough, and figured it would go away when she eventually settled into a better sleeping routine and matured enough to stay awake for longer periods of time.

Of late I've been able to resettle her between sleep cycles, so she's had a few longer naps (1.5-2 hours). The other day she had a 3 hour nap and was rubbing her eyes ready for another sleep not even 15 mins after waking up. After that happened I started monitoring it her sleep/wake/nap cycle and realised that she had very few periods of alert wakefulness, and the periods she does have are very short (20 mins max). She naps, then wakes, then spends about 30 - 60mins (sometimes 90 mins) tired but awake, and then naps again. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas what could be causing it? I took her to the GP who said that it's unlikely she's low in iron, being that she's exclusively BF'd. ETA: plus some solids since six months - fruit, vegies, yogurt & chicken mainly.

She seems so miserable :(

Also - it feels like her constant lethargy is affecting her development - she only just started rolling because she's always too tired for tummy time.

Has your GP done a complete check up on her? If you aren't happy with what your GP has said, perhaps a second opinion is in order? Mummy intuition is a powerful thing, and if you think something is not right, I'd be getting it checked out. She may just have a virus, but it's worth pushing.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for replying. No the GP didn't check her at all. I think I will take her to the MCHN to see if she has any suggestions, and another GP if that doesn't lead to any answers.

I wonder if anyone else has had experience with a constantly tired baby? Could it just be that she's not sleeping long enough? Eg today she had 4 x naps ranging between 25 and 50 mins.

How many naps per day is usual at 7 months of age?

4 naps is fine at this age, but I would be trying to get longer sleeps out of her. Maybe by trying a carrier, swing, hammock, changing sleep position or being wrapped?

Does she go back to sleep easy even if shes only been awake for 15 minutes? Rubbing her eyes, could she have an allergy?

I agree, you need to follow up on this.

Sometimes she can be resettled if she has just stirred or needs a burp, but if she actually wakes up and opens her eyes after a short sleep (which is often the case), we can't usually get her back to sleep easily. Just needs to be held and cuddled for the next hour or so until she's exhausted enough to go to sleep again.

She is still wrapped for all sleeps. She sleeps equally badly in bed or in her bouncer. She gets agitated in slings so they're out. I sometimes use the pram to get her to sleep but that too yeilds short naps. I don't think rubbing her eyes is due to allergy because she's only doing it when she's tired. She tends to sleep on her side (either side), what other position could I try?

Any ideas for how to get her to sleep longer? I try to resettle when she wakes by walking her or feeding her, but she usually arches her back and tries to wriggle out of my arms.

My DD was having two long naps at about that age, so 2-3 hrs each. Your DD sounds like she's getting the same amount of sleep in, but in smaller bursts. How do you go with resettling her if she wakes still tired?

Sometimes we can resettle her if, for example, she stirs but doesn't wake because she needs to burp. But if she actually wakes up or we take too long to respond, then she won'r resettle. She'll just stay awake, exhausted, tired and grumpy etc, for about another hour until we can get her to sleep

Got an appt with the MACH tomorrow.. hoping to get some answers/guidance/insight. I'm starting to think maybe allergies are a prob for her..

DD2 was still having 4 sleeps a day at that age, she would only last 90mins before needing bed again

Thanks for sharing Olive, it's reassuring to hear that not all babies are down to two naps per day at this age! The main problem with DD is that sometimes she'll have 3 sleeps, sometimes she'll have 7. And when she's awake she is more often than not tired and irritable and we spend between 2 and 4 hours per day trying to comfort her to sleep.

I went to the MCHN with our sleep/nap diary she seemed to think basically the same thing as what I've been thinking. Because she rarely has good long sleeps, she's always tired and therefore doesn't have enough energy to be practicing gross motor skills. She has referred us to an in-home intensive family support, which means they'll come in and spend some time with us and teach us a few tricks. (Hopefully not CC or CIO, or I'll march them straight out the door!). The MCHN seems to think that co-sleeping is probably contributing to her poor sleeping as she's accustomed to having me right next to her so when she rouses from a sleep cycle and I'm not there, she wakes up and calls out. I think she might be right, I had been thinking that anyway. Sad coz I LOVE co-sleeping, and it worked so wonderfully with my DS.

So.. thanks everyone for your support. I'm feeling less stressed now that we have a plan to tackle it.

Anyone had the in-home sleep people come? What do they do? What were they like?

Hi Skeetaboat - not sure if you will check this, but am having exactly the same problem. My boy is 5 months old now, and he is a very highly strung, sensitive, overstimulated baby, and has always been since birth. Always alert and looking around constantly. Needless to say, he is a shocker to put to sleep and to stay asleep. I am worried that now, he is so overtired, he takes ages to get to sleep, and will refuse to settle after 40mins. Like your baby, he only stays awake for about 40mins before getting cranky, rubbing his eyes and getting really jerky. He was rolling to one side, but is now not even doing that as he is too tired.
Just wondering whether you have had any success, and what you tried?