how many naps/how much sleep for 15 week old

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

DS had his own lovely routine up til a few weeks ago, which included sleeping 7:30pm-5am with dream feed at 11pm, then up for the day about 8am. He'd have on average 3 naps a day of between 1 and 2 hours each.

it's all gone tits up tho and i'm not sure whether to keep just following his lead or start guiding him into some sort of routine again. The main issue is his seeimg inability to nap for more than half hour, which would be fine if he woke happy but he's invariably grumpy or in meltdown, but I can't get him to resettle...I think he's waking more in the night because of such a disrupted daytime pattern...is there some sort of average/minimum time babies this age ought to sleep for during the day?

It feels like we've both lost our intuition a bit (which it took weeks to get in the 1st place!)

Are you me? I just posted something remarkably similar in the feeding threads (because my brain has capsized and even though the problem is sleep, it seems to me to be about food because she wakes up to feed...). I will watch with interest! FWIW, my instinct is that the short naps disrupt night time sleep too. Still, DD is very hungry when she wakes in the night. Is your DS? Maybe this is just a long-ish growth spurt?

exactly the same! i totally think it's linked as he is waking to feed at night (though not during the day), he feeds regularly every 3-4 hours but it's a struggle to get him to stay more than 5 mins on the boob!

i think the short naps are def what are causing him to decide it's morning at 6/6:30am, but how the hell to make him sleep longer?!

Sometimes a little jiggling, sometimes napping together, sometimes the pram can make DD sleep more. Not an exact science tho!!

It sounds like he may be over-tired so try settling him down for a nap about 20mins before the time you usually do. Look for signs of tiredness which include:
Quietening down
Heavy eyes
Yawning

Signs he may be overtired are:
Rubbing of eyes
Hyperalert
Grumpy/whiny
Meltdown

Babies this age shouldn't be awake for more than 2hours without a nap, a small minority can't go longer than an hour before they become overtired. Look for the signs rather than at the clock and start winding him down 20-30mins before a nap with a predictable routine. He should idealy be getting 3 naps a day as a rough guide:

Up 7am
Nap 1- 9am-10am
Nap 2- 12pm-2pm
Nap 3- 4pm- 5pm
Bed - 6.30pm-7pm

I've got a 5mth old DS and this is the pattern we roughly follow. Although he can be a pain in the neck with his half hour nappettes too I try to resettle him by giving him a feed, cuddling him or jus giving him back his dummy. Sometimes it works, sometimes not!

see this is the thing, we've not followed a strict routine til now, he's getting better at showing me his tired signs and I'm getting better at spotting them but sometimes we get nothing at all...but you're right, he prob is overtired (he had major issues with that when younger)

Maybe i ought to just put in a routine of some sort - just hard when sometimes he's tired after an hour of waking up and sometimes he's happy as larry for 2.5!

i must admit my baby (also 15 weeks) hardly sleeps at all during the day. she catnaps for 10ish mins a few times a day but no really long sleeps - occasionally she go for a long 2hr nap but not often

she has her last feed between 10pm and 11pm then goes down until between 3am and 5am

she also amuses herself when i need to get bits done and she always has the other to entertain her too so it doesn't really bother me

i'm just glad she sleeps for a reasonable amount at night

a baby's routine changes so much because of the rate they grow and they become more aware of their surroundings, just as you think you've got it sussed they decide to change it
you just have to go with the flow on that one!

could he be teething? that could make him more unsettled

i think he's on the start of teething, dosn't have red cheeks or fever or anything but drooling lots, putting EVERYTHING in his mouth and really clamps down with his gums