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Sleep

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Original poster

Ideas to get a 3 month old to sleep

11 replies

fifitot · 12/10/2010 21:27

Until this week, DS who is 3 months has been feeding on and off (BF) until about 9pm when he will go to sleep in his cot - after a feed.

I really want him to go to sleep earlier than this so I can at least get my tea in peace! I remember 3 months being the age when I began to get DD to bed at a more reasonable hour but can't for the life of me work out how I did it!

Last night he went off fairly easily after about 5 mins crying at 8. Tried again tonight and he wasn't having it.

What is PU?PD? Might that work?

I know cc is too early and while I did have NCSS I don't know so any ideas from that would be helpful.

Please post suggestions if you can. I just want a couple of hours peace in the evening before I turn in myself!

Thanks.

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Original poster

fifitot · 12/10/2010 21:33

BTW - what I mean is, get him to sleep earlier.

OP posts:

Ieattoomuchcake · 12/10/2010 22:25

I'm no expert as my DD is just 15 weeks corrected but what we did with her was introduce a routine - bath etc. At first we timed it to coincide with when she 'wanted' to go to bed but then brought it earlier gradually and she seemed to get the idea that after bath, song, quiet feed, it was bedtime.
I hope you get an evening to yourself soon

omaoma · 12/10/2010 22:37

OH my love I think the best thing to do is get granny over, hand over the baby and one of you leave the house for a few hours! The kicking off when you start to eat thing is classic, they all do it. It's like they have antenna for when your attention is elsewhere (maybe they do - good evolutionary skill!)

It's such a schnazzle getting them into a sleep routine but it does happen. Try and follow what's working for DC at the moment (they do change unfortunately) and use that as a basis for some kind of routine - go with whatever works for both of you.

Bath and swaddling both worked well for us; I know other people who swore by those self-rocking cribs and even more who swore by giving baby to daddy to wear in a sling for 2 hours and going to a different room :)

SkilpadsMom · 13/10/2010 09:12

Hi - like Ieattoomuchcake, my DS is just 12 weeks so don't have a vast amount of experience, but i started with a bath, quiet time, feed and then sleep (and the feed and sleep is in the dark) which we started to coincide with when DS wanted to sleep i.e. 8.45pm. we then gradually brought this earlier, to now bath is at 6.45, story quiet time is 7-7.15, and feed to 7.30in the dark and then sleep. It has worked well, and took about a week to bring him back an hour, so we are trying yo get him to 7 now!

Hope that helps..

Original poster

fifitot · 13/10/2010 10:14

Thanks for the ideas. Unfortunately no granny nearby! However I will work on the routine - good idea. He certainly will go off to sleep at 9ish but if put him down earlier will scream the house down. Will just keep plugging away at it.

Unfortunately he is fed to sleep (BF) which is something I wanted to avoid this time round but have fallen into it. I suppose I can focus on weaning him off that later.

Thanks ladies.

OP posts:

Scarlett175 · 13/10/2010 19:57

hi fifitot

our DD is 25 weeks, and we were feeding her to sleep until about 3 weeks ago, and like you it was consuming our evenings, waiting for her to go to sleep and she usually did not got to bed til 8/9 despite a bed bath routine since she was 5 weeks.

We did a few things all at once to try to change this- first was getting her up at 7am everyday and making sure her last nap finished by 5pm (so we knew she had to be tired by 7pm), then to be honest I went out for a boogie and left DH to put her to bed without even the option of a BF. We did read baby whisperer, and I suppose DH used the idea of PU/PD (if they cry pick then up, til they stop then lay down) but really now he does his own thing, sings to her, rubs her back in the cot to reassure her.

Now its not perfect but it has meant we are getting a longer first stretch of sleep, most nights from at least 7pm til 1am. Tonight I put her to bed, did give her a quick BF but put her down sleepy NOT asleep then held her hand for a while.... I have been stressing about feeding her to sleep since she has been here but we seem to have broken that association...

I think you need to be sure he is tired firstly and look at his nap routine etc in the day??

hope that helps a bit... x

Original poster

fifitot · 14/10/2010 08:42

Thanks. I have introduced a regular bath and think that might help. Also you are right about naps. He has been napping til around 5.30 recently and it is too late.

Thanks for your ideas.

OP posts:

AngelDog · 14/10/2010 20:44

Earlier bedtimes usually develop around 3-4 months, sometimes as late as 5 months in babies who had colic. It may well just take a few more weeks. I think my DS was still going to bed fairly late at 3 months.

PU/PD is basically a nicer version of controlled crying intended to get the baby to settle themselves.

At this age, I really wouldn't worry about feeding to sleep. At 9 months I've got to the point of stressing about the fact that DS won't always feed to sleep any more!

Woodlands · 14/10/2010 22:43

sorry, no advice - my 12 week old ds won't go to sleep until 1am! but i am looking forward to the clocks going back as I hope that will allow us to bring it all back an hour. that's only a couple of weeks away.

Mae34 · 15/10/2010 20:55

Similarly to some of the other posters I brought in a evening routine when my DD started having a bedtime (about 14 weeks, shes now 18 weeks) and then gradually worked earlier until its now about 7.30 bath and 8 pm bed. We do bath, books in quiet room with low light, music box and feed, then into bed sleepy but not asleep, shh/ pat if she's not settling and if she starts doing mini press ups get her out and walk her up and down until she's sleepy again!

Like some of the others I try not to let the last nap of the day go past 6 ish or she wont go down easily. She has three naps, at 9 ish, 12 ish and 4 ish and is up at 7.30 usually. She was getting up at 8.30 and I began getting her up earlier in the morning at the same time every day which also helped earlier bedtime...

EBDteacher · 15/10/2010 21:38

I'd vote for the routine too. We've been doing bath, feed in night-lit room, down in cot by 7pm since we brought DS home from the hospital (he's 9 weeks now) and it's been a life saver. We feed him at 10.30pm (used to be 1am- now 'dropped') and 3.30am. He wants up at 6am- but that works for us as it's when DH gets up for work and when we'll all need to be up when I go back to work.

DS is a good night sleeper though so I think we're very lucky. When he's got too tired and crotchety in the evening he actually smiles when we take him up the stairs for bed! He's useless at sleeping in the day and I often spend 1pm - 6pm attempting to soothe an over-stimulated, grumpy, nap-refusing monster and then I THANK THE LORD for the solid bedtime routine!!

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