13 week old sleep advice

[Macdaddylonglegs]

Some advice or reassurance please. I have 13wo and I am struggling a bit with naps, nighttime sleep has also got a bit worse recently.

Ds seems to be only able to stay awake for about 1 hour periods in the day before showing tiredness. Morning nap is a doddle for some reason. Just need to swaddle, give dummy and pop into the cot and he goes to sleep. The rest of the day becomes really tricky. The above doesn't seem to work so easily. Buggy doesn't work any more, neither does car seat or rocking. He won't feed to sleep. The sling will work but he's really big and heavy and I've got a 2.5yr old to look after so really not keen on using it for all naps. I've just spent 45 minutes getting him down for second nap which was possible as toddler with childminder today but on the other 3 days a week she's at home he ends up an overtired screaming mess as I can't spend 45 mins getting him to sleep. He's also recently gone from managing 3-4 hour stretches at night to waking 1-2 hourly. He is bf if that's relevant. Just wondering if anyone has tips or can reassure me things will just get better in next week's /months?!

Also how long should I expect him to nap for? He often seems to wake from naps crying and still looks tired. Often wakes after 30 -40 mins but I struggle to get him back off if I try. Thanks!

At 13 weeks a typical routine would involve a repeating pattern along the lines of 30-60 minutes awake followed by 30-45 minutes asleep. Repeated throughout the daytime.

It sounds like your DS is getting over-tired in the afternoons.

I love the bouncy chair for daytime naps, especially given you have another child to look after. Foot bouncing a bouncy chair while you are sat on sofa is a great way to get baby to sleep while still interacting with your toddler.

I like the EASY routine for this age of baby:

E - Eat - start off the repeating routine with a full feed
A - Awake time - If baby is showing over tired signs at a hour, try limiting awake time to 45 minutes or even less.
S - Sleep - Short naps of up to 45 mins are normal and absolutely fine. The key is to ensure they are frequent, which is what the EASY routine ensures.
Y - You tine while baby sleep

Then when baby wakes up you start again with E for Eat, so gave a full feed, note the time and aim to have baby back in bouncy chair and going to sleep again in 45 minutes.

The more you follow the routine, the more you get used to what works for your baby. It might be that 40 minutes awake / 20 minutes asleep works for him. Or maybe 60 minutes awake and he usually sleeps for 45 minutes - or whatever works for your baby in a very baby-led way.

The key to EASY is that while it is predictable and routine, it is done in a baby led way whereby the baby sets the timings.

FATE's advice is spot on. My dd's sleep went to pot around the 3 month mark. Followed the EASY routine as above (but she roughly had 60-90 mins awake time, 30-40 min nap) and over the course of several weeks her daytime naps improved. Then her night stretches got longer and longer. She started to sleep through by about 6 months although she was ff by then. Still, as long as I got at 4 hours sleep at a stretch I could at least function!

Great. Thanks that's so useful. I think I had unrealistic expectations for much longer naps. He used to fall asleep really well in the bouncer but I've struggled and not tried it for a while. I'll try and get him down sooner as I agree he'said easier in the morning and becomes progressively overtired. Thanks again.