Naps for 3 month old

[StanleyR38]

Reading so much info on naps lately I’m driving myself mad, but how do you get your baby to nap, explaining in the most basic wording?

I read a lot that you need to reduce your baby’s awake window if struggling with naps, but literally how to get them to nap in the first place?! Even after 2 hours awake she seems wide awake, staying awake for 3-4 hours at a time sometimes before finally napping.

Feed to sleep seems to be a big no no but works most of the time

Rock/pat to sleep seems a no as baby will create sleep associations and always expect it. Plus this seems to take up to an hour for me

Walking around in pram works rarely

Only thing left seems to be put in cot but isn’t she too young to fall asleep without any additional help?

I feel like I’m caught in the middle of she’s too young to not feed to sleep/pat/rock vs creating bad sleep associations.

Am I worrying about this too young?! How do i shorten her awake window to say 90 minutes as a test to she if she’s just overtired? Thanks in advance for any tips

For the first nap of the day I would definitely be trying to get her back to sleep within 90 minutes of waking.

You can decide which sleep associations work best for you - just realise you might need to change habits later.
Sucking and movement work for most babies so just do what works for your baby. Feeding to sleep? Dummy and a walk in the pram? Bounce in a bouncer/sling?

You can also introduce particular music, white noise and comforters now while you are feeding or rocking to sleep - once those become an established sleep association you can then start to reduce the feeding and rocking and the baby still has other associations.

Personally what I did at that age was, fed on wake ups rather than before naps.
So baby woke at say 7am, breastfeed, and then by 8.30 or whenever baby got fussy I'd put them in the sling with a dummy and muslin (muslin always cuddled between us during breastfeeds too to create an association) and bounce them to sleep.
Try to vary the ways you get the baby to sleep so they're not reliant on one particular method eg next nap might be while walking in the pram.

As they got a bit older we transitioned from bouncing in the sling or rocking in the pram to patting in the cot.

Try the cot. If it works, you've won the baby jackpot.

Thanks all! So reading in between the lines I’m worrying about the next stage before I’ve mastered the first and trying to accommodate both - I do this all the time so no surprises there.

i have started to introduce music whilst feeding towards end of a wake window , and her having a comforter. First feed of day, we feed on waking up but think as the day goes on awake windows go to shit we end up feeding to sleep so need to work on that.

We did get into a semi routine of after first feed, walk the dog to which she used to fall asleep in the pram albeit not always very long. But she’s stopped dropping off - probably because of my insane decision to give her a toy dangling from the cot hood to play with whilst we’re walking - I thought she might be bored 🤦‍♀️

A few things to go back to basics I think and have also downloaded the Huckleberry app with the free trial to see what our day looks like in black and white- admittedly I go off memory, which isn’t that great!

As some who craves logic and reason day to day, having a baby goes against all that! But feel like I have a direction now so thanks very much. Will try to remember to update in a week on how I get on 🤞

Huckleberry is good and great if you like data! I’m trying to reduce my use of it as it does make you a slave to your phone.

Huckleberry reckons that a 3 month old will have wake windows lasting between 1 hour and 1.5 hours. I suggest you look out for tired cues like eye rubbing.

Today this is what I did for my 4 month old working with a roughly every 3 hour feed.

Woke and fed at 6:30.
Fed at 8:10
Put down for a nap and napped 9:07-9:40 ( four month sleep regression/progression short nap problems!)
His next feed was due around 11:10 so we had playtime and we got out in the pushchair for some fresh air but he actually napped some more.
Woke and fed at 11:15.
Playtime/bouncer/jumperoo time
Put down for a nap and napped 13:15 to 13:47, again a short nap but better than nothing.

And so on an so forth.
Essentially he was going down for a nap tired but not hungry.
I did lots of writing down times and predicting when the next nap or feed could happen and changing them.

When I put baby down I use sleep reassurance technique and a short sentence after putting him into a lightweight sleeping bag.

Best of luck!

@Takeoutyourhen thanks!

We are in day 3 of attempting to get some order and today I’ve felt the best in ages. I’ve not dared to really venture out of the house in case she ‘kicked off’, but using the Huckleberry app means I can see when she last fed, when she’s due for a nap and see if there’s a pocket of time to get out. We got to McDonald’s drive thru today 😂

Have found that I need to be getting her in the cot about 15 mins before Huckleberry suggests so she can sort of wind down and have a kick about. I have always been faced with high pitched screams previously so think I was leaving it too late and had an overtired baby on my hands.

Naps are generally short - 30 mins on average with the exception of one at nearly 2 hours today. We too seem to be in a bit of sleep regression - she’s actually 15 weeks - so mornings are currently starting around half 5. Also not managed a nap in the pram.

Also by chance came across someone on IG who does no cry nap training. Tried a few of her techniques shushing, patting, stroking etc and think I’ve learnt that DD likes minimal interaction for naps, but the concepts she uses seem to work. Think I was over doing it a bit in desperation and maybe overstimulating her.

So more positive, although DD has just woke up an hour after being put down… long night here we come!

That sounds great! Confidence and consistency will get you far :)