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Sleep tips for 3 month old

4 replies

Bullzeye · 04/03/2023 20:23

My ds is 13 weeks and loves his contact naps during the day and gets a really long sleep doing this. However I would like him to start going down for the odd nap during the day so I can just have some time to just make myself a cuppa. I've been trying to do first nap of the day but as soon as I put him down he wakes. I even do the arm test when he's in my arms to see if he is in a deep sleep and he always seems to be.

Any tips on how I can start reducing the contact naps?

Night routine- bath every night, breast feed then sleep (between 7 and 8 depending on last nap). He goes off in my arms after a BF. We have white noise on and a very dim red light. Some days he let's me put him down in bedside crib but will wake after 15 mins and scream to be held again. I might try 3 times to put him down and if unsuccessful I don't bother. He cosleeps with me and my dh. I have to keep my arm around him and be chest to chest as sleeping next to me on the mattress is still not good enough for him. I'm always in agony during the night with my hips and shoulders. I can't risk changing arms and having him in the middle as dh flips round like a salmon in the night. I love cosleeping as I can get some sort of sleep, albeit very broken sleep with a BF every 2hrs...but he's getting heavy now and my body is breaking!!

Reading about putting a baby to bed drowsy and letting them fall asleep gave me anxiety and made me stress. I tried it and he's far too young for that. I also don't want any info on sleep training just some helpful advice to have a little bit of a break.

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katsue · 04/03/2023 20:36

I have this exact situation but mine is 16 weeks. I haven't mastered this at all but I was thinking of starting to take him out in the pram at morning nap time and then leaving him in the garden to sleep. He sleeps a lot better in the fresh air, I just haven't been very organised about it yet.

Bullzeye · 04/03/2023 20:41

katsue · 04/03/2023 20:36

I have this exact situation but mine is 16 weeks. I haven't mastered this at all but I was thinking of starting to take him out in the pram at morning nap time and then leaving him in the garden to sleep. He sleeps a lot better in the fresh air, I just haven't been very organised about it yet.

Definitely a good place to start. Ds has decided he doesn't want to sleep in the pram anymore as he's too interested in the trees! He used to sleep in it for 2hours in the porch listening to the noise of the traffic. I don't understand my friends and family telling me their baby sleeps all day and night in the cot I just don't get how they got to that point!

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katsue · 04/03/2023 21:06

I don't believe in these babies that supposedly sleep in cots. This is my third and I'm yet to have a Moses basket/cot sleeper 😉

I do enjoy the co-sleeping (apart from the painful ribs from lying so still) so I haven't tried too hard to persuade him.

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Marchforward · 04/03/2023 21:15

I’m a big fan of cosleeping but you are coming up the most dangerous time in term of SIDS, please read up safe cosleeping on the lullaby trust. Sleeping chest to chest is not the safest way to bedshare.

For your hips, try sleeping with a pillow between your thighs. In an ideal world you would swap which side you’re lying on a few times a night but this is only safe if it’s just you and your baby in bed, unless you get your husband to get up and move too. Alternatively, can DH sleep in a different bed?

For naps you may find it easier to get your little one to sleep in a pram. If you put the
hood up he can’t see the trees.

It’s hard work having a contact napper.

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