Seeking Advice on a Three Month Old Sleep Schedule

I wasn't able to detect any real "routine" with my daughter's sleep patterns till she was about 4 months.

I read and followed the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and I could not have been more happy. The first few days are hard because you are training, but it is worth it for you, the baby, and the whole family. Good luck.

Hi, M.:

With my son, who is now almost 2, I let him tell me at that age what he needed. He finally started sleeping regular 6 hour stretches at night at 11 weeks, so I was lucky. During daytime naps, he would always give me clues as to when he was sleepy. Usually, rubbing his nose or eyes with his hands. Then, I'd put him down. Eventually, I learned his pattern and sometimes didn't wait for his cues and would just put him down around the time he was usually sleepy. It's constantly a transition, but I wouldn't stress out about it. Then again, I'm expecting my second in May, and I may discover that what worked for my son, won't work with the new baby. Still, I'm also determined (for now) not to stress out about it. :)

Best of luck!

S.

I think you need to follow your mothering instinct on this one. Every person is different and while it's important that babies get to nap when they're tired, it doesn't mean it has to be every two hours. I don't know where you read that, but it certainly doesn't apply to every baby. Do what works best for the two of you. I think schedules for babies are over-rated. As long you and the baby are having your needs met, then everything is gonna be alright. Good Luck!

I would let your baby set his own schedule. What we read are merely guidelines not necessarilly the rule to be followed by all babies. My youngest baby is 6 weeks old and has started staying awake up to 3 1/2 hours at a time or just 30min after nursing. I wouldn't try to "force" a baby as young as yours to return to sleep. As young as he is, his body knows what it needs and babies that young don't really fight what the body needs.
Good luck to you.

I think at 3 months just read the signs. Baby should be sleeping a lot. I didn't start to try to get my son on a schedule until 4 months. I first started with feeling his natural schedule out and then building the night routine first - bath, book, milk, bed. Once I had a "bedtime" - we did 7pm - then I kind of worked backward from there to figure out naps. I didn't let him nap past 5 and had him on 3 naps a day. He would go down for naps anywhere from 2-3 hours after waking or the last nap.
Every baby is different! Good luck!

I would visit www.sleepyplanet.com and go under "sample schedule" it lays it all out for you. :-)

I really don't see any reason to force a nap on the kid. You can tell if a baby is tired by the way they act, and yes, he should be getting plenty of sleep, but you don't have to ensure that he sleeps every two hours, because as they get older babies want to be up more and more. And please, don't lay him down with his pacifier. at three months old, he doesn't really have any motor skills to speak of, what if he wants to get rid of it and can't? Could you try letting it happen naturally? Just pay attention to the signs, if he seems tired lay him down or lull him to sleep, but there isn't any reason to force him, all kids are different and want a bit of a different sleep schedule.

Hi M.,
At this point I would not worry about any schedules. Let your son do what is natural. Feed on demand, nap on demand. Plenty of time for routines later on; three months is still soooo young :)

Not letting a baby stay up more than 2 hours at a time, how can you do that with a baby that doesn't want to sleep? My son always slept horribly, but by that age he was maybe getting 3 naps. I always put him down when he was tired, still do (at 14 months). Sometimes that means more or less naps, but as long as you watch him, you'll know when he's ready.

At around 4 months, you can expect to see a regular 3-nap schedule start to shake out. Something like
7pm-6 or 7am (with 1 or 2 feeds)
8 or 9am for an hour or two
12 or 1pm for an hour or two
4pm for a short one

From 6 weeks to 4 months, all you can expect is that the night wakings are brief.

I agree with Anna. Your baby will know when he wants/needs to sleep.
Sue

Hi,

Babies are always transitioning, aren't they? =)

If your little one is sleeping through the night (last late night feeding until early a.m.), it is probably time to stretch it out a bit. There is a great little book called "Babywise" that explains this kind of transitioning, but for today, let him stay up 2 hours and see how it goes. Before too long it will be time to switch him to 3 or even 2 good naps a day.

Have a wonderful time with that little boy!
T.

I'm not really sure what is "normal", but my 3 month old does the same cycle. Eat, play, sleep. I watch for the first sign of her gazing or not acting as interrested and that's usually when I put her down for a nap. Often, she will just lay there awake for a little while before she actually falls asleep. But if she is awake for more than 2 hours she is very cranky and doesn't go down easily at all. I don't know if that helps much...

At this age, both my babies would be up about 1 1/2 hrs between naps. I would keep the same routine daily with them - eat, wake and nap. At the first 'yawn' or whine or whatever your cue may be, I got them ready for their nap. Sometimes they would just lay there for 5-10 min and then go to sleep but it's better to put them down before they are overtired (like the other M. posted). One thing that helped me (and I know all babies are different) is that I added '15' min/month. So, at 4 months, they would be up around 1 hr 45 min between naps and at 5 months, approx. 2 hrs/etc......... One thing too, if your son takes a short nap (like less than an hour), they may need to go down earlier for their next nap.....just watch their sleepy signs -that is key!! If you want a GREAT program to follow - I did the 3 Day Sleep Solution with both of my babies..
They were sleeping 12 hrs/night at 12 weeks with a great nap/sleeping routine. Go to www.3daysleep.com for more info. Another thing, she told me NO music at nap/sleeptime...

Good luck and good job wanting your baby on a good sleeping schedule!! :)

Hi M.!

Good for you for being actively involved in your baby's sleep needs! The 2 books that helped me the most were Babywise and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Babywise helped me start the eat, activity, sleep routine (which you are already doing) and Healthy Sleep helped me understand the need for sleep (and has sections going all the way through adolescence!!) and what I could be expecting. Babywise can seem a little hardcore, we definitely tailored it for our little one. Healthy Sleep addresses several parenting styles, which I thought was great, too. There's an online thing called Sleep Sense (I think!)...I didn't buy the book, but I'm on their email list, so I've gotten to read a lot of advice to others, and that's been helpful.

Okay, so about sleep! At 3 months, sounds like he's on the right track! It will probably be another month or so before things start evening out and becoming consistent (and even then, they're always in flux!). My DD took about 4 naps of varying length at that stage, and between 14-18 weeks started taking longer naps and stretching out her feedings, too. At that point, we moved to a morning nap at 9 (she was up at 7) for 1.5-2 hours and a PM nap at 1 for about the same length. Sometimes we'd help her get through the shift from one sleep stage to another...go in and pat her or whatever. She would take a 45 minute (ish) nap at 5 and go down between 7:30-8. She dropped that 3rd nap at about 7-8 months, and then we moved her bedtime up to more like 7-7:30.

At 3 months, he may not be sleeping for a real long time, but you are on track (IMO) with the 2 hour thing. A lot of times, they can get overtired easily. Learn to read HIS signs (our daughter didn't look drowsy, and still sometimes doesn't at 21 months...but then she goes right to sleep!) and go from there. I don't think there's anything wrong with a paci if he wants it, it may be helping him self soothe. Swaddling is great...our girl still likes to be in her blankie.

Oh, and our daughter didn't have longer than a 2-2.5 hour stretch of waketime until after that 3rd nap was dropped. But that was what worked for her. We would sometimes skip that 3rd nap if we had things to do, or family stuff...but we tried to be REALLY consistent about the AM and PM naps in a bed.

Good luck! You are doing great, Momma!

R. G.