3 month old sleep

[StarlessSea123]

I have a 3 month old (14 weeks old) daughter who generally goes to bed between 10pm-11pm each night, and usually will wake around 3am for a feed and then sleep until 7am. She’s formula fed. There have been occasional nights in the past couple of weeks where she’s slept through without needing the feed in the middle of the night, and conversely the odd night where she’s woke a couple of times for feeds (injections last week put her off her bottles during the day and she made up for it at night). I guess my question is, when should I be trying to bring her bedtime earlier, and any tips for how do I do this gradually? She cat naps in the evening in her pram in the kitchen - she for some reason doesn’t sleep in her bedside crib until it’s actually “bedtime” but I’d like to maybe achieve an 8pm bedtime eventually so that my husband and I can have some downtime in the evenings again. Worried though if I do that, she’ll be inevitably up too early in the mornings. There was one night she fell asleep in my arms at 9 so I put her down in the bedroom crib and she was up twice feeding that night. Seems hard to strike a balance, but if she’s too young I’ll accept that too of course and see if it happens naturally.

In my experience you just need to roll with the punches - babies know when they need more sleep and adjust accordingly. Sleep training etc at this age is a stressful waste of time if you ask me. Just follow her lead.

And are you strict on daytime naps or go with the flow? At 12 weeks I started introducing the bedtime routine for her feed prior to the 10-11 one, so 7pm-ish. I also started to put him down for a sleep 3 times a day so I knew he would be tired enough at 7pm to do a long stretch rather than a quick cat nap.

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FFS. You can't put her down to sleep in another room til she's 6m so I wouldn't worry about bedtime until then, just go with the flow.

I think you get a sense for it, basically when they’re no longer content with cat napping downstairs plus they are crabby, tired but only settle when taken to a dark, quiet cot. For my 2 that was around 4 months. I kept the 10/11pm feed and made it a dreamfeed just before I went to bed and with that they slept through. I wouldn’t force it early though, given they should be with you for all sleeps until 6 months, if they are properly going to bed at 7 you’re either stuck in a dark room with them or you’re going against the guidelines by leaving them with a monitor.

At the minute I go with the flow when it comes to her naps and her bottles too - she’s fed on demand. That’s the thing I wasn’t sure about bedtime too as currently when she goes to bed I stay in the room with her and read my kindle etc until I fall asleep too but you hear of others with kids the same age who sleep from 7 - makes you wonder are they leaving them unattended. But anyway thanks everyone for the reassurance that going with the flow and following her lead is the right thing to do, I wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong 😊

Seems like very good stretches of night sleep to me!!!
The 4 month regression is just around the corner so there could be a shake up 🙈
My boy (breastfed so possibly different) used to cluster feed until 10/11pm before settling down into a deep sleep. From about 3mo it got earlier and earlier till he got cranky earlier one night so I put him down at 8ish and from then on that started the new bedtime routine.

Yes we’ve been fortunate that she goes for a good few hours between her night feeds. Last night she decided to be up ready to party from 11 to 4 but that was a one off and I blame teething as her hands are never out of her mouth. She was offered a bottle and didn’t want it - took an ounce and let it run out of her mouth whilst smiling up at me lol. Unless it’s the beginning of the regression 🙈

I’m in pretty much the same situation as you, although my DD is 4 months and breastfed. We go with the flow for all naps etc too. Just wanted to add though that when I put her down when we go to bed I’ve started brushing her hair and singing the same lullaby to her so that when she moves to her own room these things will stay consistent. I obviously don’t know yet if it’ll help but I’m hoping so

@Dove88 oh I hope so! It’s a good idea to keep the bedtimes repetitive I agree, hopefully they’ll learn from the association. I think that’s why my DD only will use the next to me crib for her “big sleep”