3 month old - how much sleep??

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I'm keen to see how much other people's little ones sleep in a 24 hour period and how it is divided up into day and night sleep. My little one fights sleep all day and I'm worried he's not he's not getting enough rest over the day. He's not a great night sleeper either!

I would aim for about 30-45 minutes awake time between on nap and the next. 60 minutes at the most.

Then I'd expect naps of 20-40 minutes, although hour long naps are not unheard of and would result in longer awake times.

The best bit of baby advice I had was on MN and it was that babies should be awake for 60 to 90mins a time.

My 6 month old is just now stretching this to 2 hours if she has had a two hour nap. It sounds like I would have loads of free time but she sleeps on me.

Yes, we have about 60-90 minutes awake time between naps. Mine is a real cat-napped though, mainly because DD1 tends to wake her up by being a toddler noisy.

I use this as a rough guide www.babycentre.co.uk/a7645/how-much-sleep-does-your-baby-need

I've got a nap refuser 12 weeks today, will only BF to sleep. She'll nap on me but has to have the boob in her mouth. However, if I take her out in the pram she will often nap over 1.5-2 hours.
She doesn't seem to fall into a deep enough sleep until about 10pm and wakes twice in the night before fully awake at 7.
I don't understand how I would get her to nap every hour unless I stay at home and BF all day?

Not much napping in the day but usually sleeps 7pm - 4am
Occasionally wakes at 10pm or 1am

My DS is 15 weeks (so 3 and a half months) he sleeps from 9:30pm until 7am, wakes up and takes his bottle then usually goes back down until 9/10am.
Then he'll be awake until 12:30/1ish. (He'll have a feed in between this time) then he'll go to sleep till 3/4.
Then stay awake all wide eyed till 7, then sleep till 8pm, take his last bottle then go down for the night!
My first DS kept a similar routine, but didn't sleep through the night till he was 9 months. DS2 definitely is more active during his awake hours though

Yeah mine totally refuses naps it's so so hard. I know better napping would make everything easier but you can just see him when he's being rocked or walked around or whatever forcing his eyes back open...!

Mine catnaps in the day. Has 20/30 mins after being awake for 90 mins. I'm glad a few others have said they'll only nap on then mine is the same! Drives me bonkers. Age generally goes to sleep around 9/10 but feeds at least twice in the night before getting up at 7/8 for the day. I don't think they tend to start to sort daytime sleep out till 6 months or so?

Thank you for all the replies. My little one becomes so miserable after short naps so I know he hasn't had enough sleep and that's why I'm keen on seeing what others are doing. It's not nice seeing him so unhappy during the day and I've been trying everything to get him to have more sleep because he's so different when he does

I posted a similar thread recently, I also use the baby centre link as a guide, but my son has never got 14-16 hours sleep in a 24 hour period. He sleeps between 11 and 13.5 hours a day. This is his rough routine, and it can be more or less than this:

8.30pm bath then final feed and he usually settles down between 9 and 9.30pm.
He sleeps then for about 7 hours - until roughly 4/4.30am. I feed him and then he will sleep for another 3 hours and he wakes for the day around 8am

He has his first nap 90 minutes to 2 hours after waking (around 10am). I've just managed to get him to sleep in his cot, and I have to feed him to sleep. He sleeps for around an hour.

He then stays awake for another 2 hours, and then goes for another nap (around 1ish) also for another hour.

I try to get him to have a third nap, which is harder to do. He has never gone down in his cot for this nap, so sometimes I let him feed lying in bed with me and he dozes on the boob. I do that between 5 and 6pm.

It's only very recently that I've got this routine and been able to get him to nap in the cot, and it's actually had a detrimental effect on his bedtime routine. My partner used to give him an expressed bottle before bed and he always associated this with sleep, and so he would literally fall asleep as soon as the bottle hit his lips. But for the last two weeks he has screamed and will only sleep if I breast feed him. I want to give up bf in a month or so, so I am persisting with with the bottle, but he won't fall asleep with the bottle, so I have to rock him. And I worry about that sleep association.

It sounds like there's a few of us with similar aged babies, what about a support thread? Where we can try to support each other to help our babies get a better sleep routine, and eventually sleep independently.

DS is nearly 13 weeks and he hasn't always been a good sleeper. It depends what time he wakes up as to how his day goes. If he wakes before 7 then he'll have his bottle and go back to sleep for an hour or two (he woke just before six this morning for example and then slept till half 8). Fed again at 945 and then fell asleep at baby group at about 11 for a quick 40 minutes snooze. Went shopping to the supermarket and he was awake all the way round then wailed in the car all the way home! Fed at one and then went for a sleep in his cot (we're getting him used to it for when he moves into his own room in the coming months as he's outgrowing his Moses basket). He napped for about three hours! He did the same yesterday afternoon though it was an hour upstairs then two down as he woke up and was crying. We have a quiet time routine in the evenings as In the lights are down and things are kept quiet and interaction minimal after a bath or a story. He'll fall asleep around 9 and comes to bed with us.

I have to say the naps in the day time is a new thing. We've been doing more stuff in the days in the last couple of weeks so he's getting more tired by that and he's always been a good sleeper at night. He knocked out his night feed at around 5 weeks and quite often doesn't have one late at night. I have totally followed him and what he asks for. I wouldn't be able to sleep just because someone told me to so I don't see why a baby should in all honesty. Like me he sleeps when he's tired, it's just he can only manage awake for two hours before he needs a power nap! I think keeping him busy has helped. I realise I am very lucky and me and my fiancé are not hugely structured people so it doesn't matter too much at all to us whether he's downstairs with us asleep or whether we put him to bed. We enjoy the time with him and I don't think either of us is fussed about bedtime just yet. DS is asleep and he's in our room still so it doesn't make a lot of difference to have him downstairs at the mo.

He's FF as I found breast feeding difficult to keep up with him.

The only thing I am getting annoyed with is OHs insistence on speaking at what sounds like a yell when we go to bed. I could actually punch him. He's probably not that loud and we want him used to noise but I fail to see what is wrong with a whisper when you go to bed! But that's a whole other thread.

My dd is 13 weeks and sleeps 6pm-5am then 6.30am-8am then 10am- 1pm then 3-4.30pm. Not really sure of the total but I do find the day naps so much harder than the night time.

Everyone else seems to have some kind of structure to their days and nights and we are really struggling. Last night my little one woke at 11-12.30, 1, 2, 3-4.30, 5-5.45 then up for the day at 6.45. He yawns immediately, fights sleep, gets grumpy and is hard to entertain. Today he napped 8.15-8.45. Woke up initially happy then grumpy 10 minutes later. We then went to playgroup which he seemed to enjoy. Fell asleep having his bottle at 10.30 but then woke 5 minutes later. Fell asleep 11-11.30. Grumpy when he woke and we walked home with him in the pram. Got him to sleep 12-1.10. Screamed on waking then fell back asleep until 2. Had a bottle then fell straight back asleep from 2.20-4.00. Was tired straight after waking and restless by 4.30. Had a quick catnap 5.05-5.30. Then was in his cot asleep around 6.30/6.45. He is like this most days and if we put him down he wakes immediately. Night times vary, last night was exceptionally bad. Any advice on what is going on please?

I would aim for about 30-45 minutes awake time between on nap and the next. 60 minutes at the most. Your awake times are too long and that's making for a tired and grumpy baby.

Here are your awake times throught the day you describe:

6.45 wake then 90 minutes awake time
8.15-8.45 nap then 2h15m awake time
11-11.30 nap then 90m awake time
12-1.10 nap then 70m awake time
2.20-4.00 nap then 65m awake time
5.05-5.30 then 60 minutes awake time
6.30/6.45 bed

Try noting the time when baby wakes and make a deliberate effort to have baby back to sleep at the first time baby is grumpy. If baby manages an hour without being grumpy, limit awake time at that point and her get him to sleep 60 minutes after last waking, at the most.

DS 2 is 12 weeks old and naps well during the day, but only in pram or sling (he will only catnap at home and takes loads of time rocking and feeding to sleep).
Luckily, I am out and about a lot with DS 1 so this isn't a problem (until I need to get him to sleep in the cot, dreading that). Our routine is:

Awake 7-7.30 am (I usually have to wake him up)
First nap 1 hour after wake up, usually 45 mins
Second nap 75 mins after waking, usually 1.5-2 hours
He then usually has two more half hour naps with 75 mins awake time in between.
He falls asleep in the evenings between 8.30 and 9.30 pm. We are doing a very slow gradual withdrawal and I am currently feeding him to sleep and then putting him down awake, worked well these last few nights.
He wakes twice during the night for a feed.

I'm up for a support thread, I'm terrified of doing something wrong regarding sleep!

Great idea on a support network AndIAsk.

Dd2 is 15 weeks and we just can't crack daytime napping. Night time sorted - in bed by 8 then up at 7am with a feed at 3am ish. But during the day she will not nap until noon. I've spent HOURS the last few days desperately trying to look for tiredness signs, then trying to get her to settle upstairs in a dark room...to no avail.

All the online advice says babies this age shouldn't be awake longer than 90mins...anyone else have a baby that stays awake this long?? OH adamant I'm being overanxious

I've tried feeding to sleep, rocking and shush-patting, buggy walks (eyes wide open little minx) and drives: NADA on the sleep front and it's driving me nuts.

Any similar experiences or advice ladies?

PeanutSmuggler2013

Does baby go down for a sleep ok when he does go to sleep at noon? Are naps in the afternoon better?

Does baby seem ok, not exhausted, go to sleep ok and stays asleep generally?

If yes then don't stress about it. 11h sleep per night with one brief wake and straight back to sleep is a very good night's sleep for a 15 week old. Most advice you find will be based on a baby with more broken sleep, having short naps and showing tired signs.

One of my 4 children (the only ff one) was sleeping like yours from newborn and by 7 weeks dropped his night feed, sleeping 11-13h uninterrupted at night. It's common sense that he would need far less daytime sleep than 'normal'. He slipped the short nap stage and went straight to 2 longer 90m naps per day.

FATE (how do I tag names by the way?!?) - noon sleep last 2hrs and she goes down faaairly easily (only takes half an hr), then occasionally I manage to get her to sleep at 5pm when I have to wake her at 5.45 for a feed...
I just can't tell if she's getting enough sleep during the day. Dd1 did the decent thing and slept after every feed! Dd2 gets unsettled - generally won't last more than 5 mins in any one place (eg baby gym, bouncer chair etc) unless we're out walking...

Good to know your ff baby skipped the 4 day naps stage, we're mixed feeding.

A 12pm-2pm nap and then 5pm-5.45pm is fairly mature sleep for her age. It's perhaps all she needs if she's on the whole going to sleep well (and is clearly staying asleep well, because of her long stretches asleep)

If it ain't broke...

Her sleep patterns may change but for now they are ok. Watch for her changes. It may be that she starts being harder work in the mornings, in which case either create a short morning nap, move lunchtime nap later and drop the tea time nap. Or make lunchtime nap earlier and longer, maybe 10.30/11am-2/3pm

Routine with ds was bath at 6, bed by 7. Dream feed at 10ish, night feed at 3ish and up for the day at 7ish.

Fed every 3 hours and naps every 90 minutes in the cot or pram if out. Short naps of 35/40 minutes