How many hours did your 2/3 month old sleep at night?

[Hope54321]

Hey guys,

How many hours did your baby sleep at night at 2/3 months ?

For those whose babies didn’t sleep much during the night, how did you cope with less sleep?

Any tips on trying to get baby to sleep before midnight? My baby can be awake until 2am! And then sleeps and wakes every 1 or 2 hours for a feed.

No advice just solidarity. Mine is 2 months and the same, sick of reading books and articles saying they should be sleeping 5-6 hours by now... been up since 4.30 this morning...

Very little. If I got a 2 hour stretch I felt like I was doing well. Unfortunately it was second born who was the non-sleeper and I had to be doing things with my toddler, but my survival tips were actually getting out for a loooooong walk and a coffee, making sure husband was on board with whatever I needed in terms of help (he would frequently take both kids as soon as he got home from work and I would nap for an hour. We also ate a lot of sandwiches for dinner. We slept separately so he was well rested and could take the kids in the morning so I could sleep until he had to get ready for work).
The main thing which helped was knowing it would eventually pass though. My problem sleeper is now two and goes through without a wake up every other night. The nights he is up, it's only once for a quick 10 minute feed. I have done absolutely zero to get to this point. We tried sleep training a few times and I just couldn't, so I put up with it.

Mine isn’t too bad at night (sorry, I’m not trying to be smug - it’s nothing I’ve done.)

Usually goes to sleep on me around 9, transfers into his crib and then usually wakes around 3 and then again at 6, or sleeps until about 5 then won’t go back to sleep.

Days are a struggle as I can’t get him to sleep anywhere nor on me. I managed to get him in his basket (he just fits!) the other day for half an hour and couldn’t believe it!

It is difficult as he gets very overtired and cranky.

@Hope54321 How much daytime sleep does your baby get? 😊 how many naps and how long are they?
Ignore all the articles about what they “should” be sleeping at this stage. Every person is different, every baby is deferent!!
Have you managed to work out what your baby’s “sleepy cues” are yet? How do they let you know they’re tired? 😊

DS slept longer stretches at 2 months than he is doing at 3 months.

A typical night at the moment is him falling asleep between 10-11 for about 2-2.5 hours. Quick 10 min feed and straight back to sleep for 3-4 hours then another 10 min feed and a final 3 hours.

He was 3 months on Monday.

At 2 months he was sleeping longer stretches (between 4 and 7 hours) but was awake in between for longer periods.

2-3 months was when DD lured me into a false sense of security and was sleeping about 5-8 hour stretches and I was so smug and so proud that I had this parenting thing nailed. And then suddenly, out of the blue, she refused to be put down and wouldn't sleep more than 5 minutes at most in her crib and that lasted until about 10 months. She still doesn't sleep through consistently now at 1 year.
I'm starting to think these little people don't care what any of the books say.

I read a book that said looking after my baby was EASY - he should Eat, do an Activity, then Sleep, and then this was Your (my) time.

As it is it is eat, activity, cry, eat, sleep for ten minutes on me so I get no time at all, activity, sleep (in pram?) eat ...

My first Dd didn't sleep much until 9 months when I gave her a bottle, I'm pretty sure it's because I didn't realise that the caffeinated tea I was drinking was going straight into my breast milk...took until my third child until I realised this. So if you bf and drink caffeinated drinks it could be this. Other than that, The Baby Whisperer book helped.

That was the book that nearly drove me insane ... goes to show we are all different.

Very little. Always slept under what they're apparently supposed to do. I went to bed very early and had a very helpful husband. Then at 5 months I started cosleeping.

Very very little... I barely coped. It gets easier ☺️

Your baby sounds (very) sleep deprived.

So do you, but you're an adult and can cope. Your baby is less able to cope with sleep deprivation.

You dont mention babys age.

It's not normal nor healthy for a pre-6 month old to be awake for longer than 2h in any one go, day or night. I'd suggest you need some guidance on different ways to help your baby get to sleep, because it doesn't just happen and often significant work and effort is needed to help baby sleep well.

(Sorry, just saw baby's age in the title)

It's not healthy for a 2-3 month old to be awake for longer than 2h in one go, day or night.

@FATEdestiny do you have any tips? I pay attention to wake windows and sleep cues for daytime naps - rocking, sling, bouncy chair, pram all get her down, but for some reason she just takes a lot lot longer in the evenings. It’s rare she’s up til 2am like the OP’s but can sometimes be awake four hours or so from 5pm. I know it should be shorter than this (and sometimes we are successful), there just doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it sometimes. Swaddling has never worked for us (though she loves being wrapped tight in a stretch sling so I find that surprising) and the dummy works about half the time when we can convince her to take it

We cosleep and I've had I think one night since DD was a few weeks old where she was very awake at 3am and that's it. I think she magically developed an insanely good circadian rhythm or something! I did nothing to encourage DD to be like this, her naps have always been harder though.

@jamie980 I've just searched your posts to find your baby's age, and see you have an 8 week old.

At that age, the evening fussiness is about clusterfeeding. This is completely normal for the age.

Expect that anytime from teatime through to the evening you will need to plan to do nothing expect for sit on the sofa. Baby will on and off constantly feed and doze in your arms, then grumble and feed again after only a really short time. Then short doze again and feed again and so on.

It's sometimes called the Witching Hour (often several hours). It's triggered by the simultaneous need for lots of calories ready for the night and lots of sleep being needed at the same time. Obviously baby can't feed and sleep at the same time. So you get this period of cluster feeding - whereby baby doesn't properly go to sleep and needs to stay in your arms for almost constant feeding for several hours.

Tgey normally grow out of cluster feeding by 3 or 4 months.

Until then, from 5pm until 9pm every night, plan to park yourself on the sofa and not move. Let baby have short dozes in between lots and lots of cluster feeds.

@Hope54321 sorry you are having such a hard time. Have you tried lots of different things to get them to sleep? E.g. walk in pram, trip in the car, falling asleep in sling, bouncy chair, white noise etc. There are lots of different tricks which may or may not work but you could give them a go.

We have trouble getting our one too sleep- anywhere between 5pm and 1am can be witching hours. Although things are gradually getting better. Recently we've started taking her out in pram at first sign of trouble which can settle her. If there's lots of crying we give her a bath- seems to shock her out of the cycle a bit. Otherwise DH spends an awful lot of time in the dark rocking her to sleep whilst singing lullabies. While he's doing that I go to bed early to catch some extra zzzz.

None. Well it felt like none. Same as you probably. And he only took one nap at 9am for 20 minutes from 7 weeks He just didn't like sleep.
We tried everything.
Best advice was if it's normal for your baby it's normal. I spent months changing stuff trying routines, nothing worked we just had to get through it. The gaps between feeds grew incrementally - until they were about 4 hours at 9 months. It is very hard going. It was slightly better when we started on solids and a bottle at night from 7 months.
I hope yours turns into a sleeper because non sleeping babies are hard going.

I’ve been really lucky with my 11week old DS. He’s formula fed and has been in the same routine as my 2.5DD for ease (and to avoid tantrums as she loves bath and story time with him!) so he is down and asleep in his cot by7.30ish, we then dreamfeed at 10ish (sometimes later if we’re watching a film/hubby is watching the football) and he generally wakes at 4 or 5am for a feed and then up at 7 with my toddler. Naps during the day are totally random (30mins to 3hrs) but I usually put him down when he starts sucking his hands which is his I’m sleepy cue which is usually after he’s been awake for 1hr 15 to 1.30 at the moment. I know that routines don’t work for everyone but for us and our toddler it’s worked to fit DS into it and he seems happy!

Are you breastfeeding?

I formula fed, from birth she pretty much went to sleep after her last feed at eleven, woke up at three, took her bottle, went back to sleep woke up at seven, at eleven weeks she started going through the night. So proper sleep at eleven and woke up at about seven,

Many will disagree but in my experience when a baby has a full tummy and is not taught they need to feed for comfort to sleep then they sleep better.

I am breastfeeding. Do people feel breastfed babies generally wake more during the night than formula fed babies?

@Hope54321 not in my circumstance, me and my best friend had babies at the same time, mine was formula fed hers was breast fed, hers slept like a dream where as mine didn’t for 3 years 🤣

@Hope54321

I am breastfeeding. Do people feel breastfed babies generally wake more during the night than formula fed babies?

Generally yes. Formula keeps babies tummies fuller for longer. It was only when I switched to formula and solids that my children started sleeping through the night. Prior to this, when I was breastfeeding, they would wake every 3-4 hours for a feed.

I honestly got to the point where I just stopped looking at the time. Shit as it sounds, it worked for those earth weeks/months though.

It was somehow way worse psychologically if I knew I was tired because he’d bloody woken up again 45 minutes after the last wake up rather than just being tired.

Not a solution but it was a tiny thing that helped me.

My DC didn’t sleep through until I night weaned then switched over to FF after another 2 weeks of him not wanting boob in the night. Your baby is defo too young to night wean atm though.

Have you tried a sleeping bag? My 8 week old is very kicky in his sleep and was waking up a lot because his blanket had come off. He’s much better since we use the bag.
He normally sleeps properly from 10/11 to 3ish then up again at 5/6. Although don’t get me started on his nap resistance in the day 🙄
He’s mostly BF but does have a bottle of formula at 10/11 so I can sleep earlier