Is my 3 month olds sleeping normal?

[Krc09]

Hi all!

I am a FTM who is new to mumsnet! I have a beautiful 13.5 week old girl. She sleeps ok at night and horribly during the day. I just want to know if what she’s doing is normal! She is EBF and gaining weight well. During the day she will only sleep for 45 min at a time! I can prolong this if I go for a walk with her in the carrier, which I try to do so she isn’t going mental by evening. I have her sleep in a dark room, white noise, swaddled/unswaddled. I’ve tried all the tricks! And now she’s insisting I nurse her to sleep which I don’t mind but makes it hard for me to get a break. Is this normal?

For night she’s does pretty well. She goes to bed around 6 and will sleep until about 12-3 am! I know a 6-9 hour stretch is good for this age. She wakes to nurse and then will go back to sleep but wakes up every hour or so until 530 and then is up. I wouldn’t mind the waking up at 530 if she wouldn’t wake up so much after her long stretch of sleep! We have tried to keep her up longer in the evening, closer to 7pm even, but she’s so tired and cranky we can’t! I also don’t really want to put her down and then wake her. We have tried that and she still wakes at the same times.

Just want to make sure this is all normal (especially the day time napping dilemma) and if there are any tips! Will I ever have a full nights sleep again? Haha

[userabcname]

Hi OP, sounds normal to me. In fact, pretty good with that nice long stretch you get! At 3 months my 7mo was sleeping 2-3 hours at a time and often waking hourly. Now on a good night I get a 4 or 5 hour stretch then every 2 hours. It is common for babies to be restless in the early hours - check it's not too hot/cold, perhaps co-sleep for that bit as you may get more sleep? I co-sleep every night to be honest, I've found it's the best way to get more sleep myself. As for naps, honestly I still struggle but I did notice around the 6 month mark that he started to nap for longer although he does still fight sleep at every opportunity! It will improve I'm sure, good luck with it all.

[Krc09]

Thanks for your reply! I figured her might time sleep was pretty decent and will hopefully work itself out after she gets older. I have tried co sleeping After her long stretch of sleep and it is hit or miss. It will work if we keep placing my hand on her chest every time she begins to stir. So she gets sleep but i don’t haha. I wish she would just sleep because she wAs next to me. I’ve tried side nursing with her but she doesn’t really fall asleep when I’m that position.

Happy to hear my LO isn’t the only one who fights sleep ! Hopefully naps get better for both of us

[user1493413286]

At that age I could only get DD to sleep by either holding her usually after a breastfeed or in the sling or pram.
Once she started sleeping for longer periods of time on me I started a transition to the baby bouncer once she was fully asleep then moving her over earlier each time until I could just put her in the bouncer for a sleep.
The night sleep sounds pretty normal unfortunately but will get better with time.

[AutumnalTed]

This sounds exactly like my 15 week old. He goes to bed around 6/7, sleeps until 1, wakes at 4 ish then wakes up every 45 mins until half 5/6ish and is up for the day. 3 45 minute naps during the day, in fact he’ll sleep for 45 minutes to the minute.
I can now put him in his Moses basket and shut the door and trust he’ll fall asleep alone, or leave him on his play mat when he’s tired and he’ll drift off to sleep. This has only happened in the last week or so though.

[Krc09]

Nice to hear it’s normal to have these short naps! When did her day time napping get better? It’s exhausting trying to put her down to nap every 1-1.5 hours especially when I have to nurse her. I feel like I’m constantly nursing her because of this.

[Krc09]

Autumnalted- wow do we have the same baby? Haha. The only difference is a definitely cannot leave my DD alone to just drift off to sleep. She would just cry and cry. I have to rock or nurse her. She’s way too alert to just put down. Idk if she’s overstimulated or what. I guarantee I’m missing sleep cues. She will yawn very quickly after waking and will cry if I try to put her down too early so I usually wait until she’s fussy, which probably isn’t best.