Three month old sleep - forgotten everything!

[NanoNinja]

I have DS1 (2.5 years) and DD1 (13 weeks). Sleep has always been a bit of a battle with DS1, but has been pretty good since we saw a sleep consultant last year.

I now have DD, and I'm thinking about trying to nudge her towards a routine and establish some good sleeping habits. To date she's largely been sleeping in the sling (during the day), in a Moses basket at night, and being fed to sleep about 50 per cent of the time. She can self settle, but really only does so at night.

What do I need to be doing at this stage to get things on a good track? I'm struggling with fitting a routine around her brother. Also she's going through a phase (please let it be a phase ) of only napping 30 minutes at a time.

This is all a bit garbled so well done if you've made any sense of it!

30 to 45 minute naps are quite normal at this age.

In terms of routine at this age I would recommend EASY daytime on structure f around 2 hours:

Eat - Feed marks the start of a cycle
Awake - Play until tired signs, no more than 90 minutes, more realistically 60 minutes from last waking.
S - Sleep - I do bouncy chair and dummy to aid independent sleeping that can be extended through sleep cycles with a bit of foot bouncing
Y - You time (when baby is asleep).

All of the above can be done from the comfort of your sofa/living room floor while entertaining DS1

NanoNinja, my 2 are similar ages. DS 2 is 11 weeks. DS1 is 2.5 yrs.

I've been trying to remember what DS1 was like at the same age, and can't! DS2 also only has short naps in the daytime - usually no more than 45mins at a time. Although frequently his naps are disrupted by DS1 so I think I'm going to start placing him upstairs soon. I find that if he's been awake for about 2 hours at a time then he's ready for another sleep.

We haven't yet got a proper routine yet for the evening. DS2 is usually downstairs with us until we go to bed, but mainly that's because DH has been away with work, so I've been doing bedtime on my own. Once he is asleep in the evening he usually can manage a decent stretch of 4 to 6 hours (ebf).

Thanks for the helpful and reassuring posts! Good to know I am not alone and that this crazy nap thing is normal.

Fate - I've been trying not to feed to sleep and do something similar to easy routine. But feel as though I'm falling into the tap of using the sling instead of breast feeding, so just another prop. I've tried dummies, but will persist until I find a brand she takes because I agree that it's a good aid.

Yaki - I have no idea how you do evenings alone. DH has travel coming up at the end of the month, and I'm scared! I'm trying to put DD down earlier (a proper bedtime), but it's still a bit hit and miss.