My 3 month old has a horrible time taking a nap during the day. Sometimes I can get her to take one nap in her swing, or maybe drift off for 15 minutes in my lap.

I've had her on a bedtime schedule for a few weeks now, but she still takes an hour or two to finally fall asleep while I'm nursing and rocking her. And forget about sleeping in her crib, she's awake by the time I get her there. I just put her in the bouncy seat sitting right next to the rocking chair.

Recently I've been co-sleeping partiallly at night. Last night the neighbors were making noise so I slept with her a few hours then moved her back to her bouncy seat. She woke up every hour after that.

And on top of all of this we live right next to the Railroad tracks. The trains wake her up too!!

Any idea to help her develop better sleep habits? I'm going to try the cry it out thing when she gets older, but what should I do in the meantime??

3 month olds go through a major growth spurt and it can effect their sleep because they want to nurse all the time. That's normal. It's called cluster feeding. She's most likely just going through some developmental milestones. Sort of like when we're thinking a mile a minute and can't rest lol.

When DD was very little we lived right next to some railroad tracks. She eventually did get used to the sound, but what helped us was having a fan on in the room as she slept for some constant white noise.

Also, we co-sleep. We've co-slept from the beginning so I don't know how feasible this is for you. Basically when we were in bed for the night, we were in bed for the night. I didn't and don't have to get up to go to her when she wakes. I'm right there and I just lift up my shirt. Easy peasy. Especially if your little one is cluster feeding. At least you can lay there and rest instead of getting up down up down.

Babies can really cycle around at that age too. DD for awhile would make night time...day time. That was tiring, but once she got past whatever it was that was causing it, she went back to a normalish nap schedule and night time. It's never *always* the same, but there abouts.

ETA: I truly think CIO is not a great thing. I know some parents use it and say it has worked wonders but I implore you to search your feelings about it. Does your body pull toward the crying baby in an almost instinctual way? There's a reason for that, really. Your baby doesn't understand you're just trying to help them sleep. They don't understand you're in the next room. Imagine waking up in a dark room and crying out for help and not receiving any. That would be very scary! There's also a lot of scientific evidence that it can be harmful to babies to CIO.

We have to use a white noise CD in order for our son to sleep well. It is a CD with vacuum, static, hair dryer, etc. noises on it that we keep on repeat all night long. We used it when he was an infant and then put it away for awhile. We recently brought it back out b/c we were having sleeps issues again. Right now he is napping and I have it on. He used to only nap for 30 minutes without it. You might want to give white noise a try.

If co-sleeping is working for now, go with it. If you want her in her crib try placing her carseat in there and letting her sleep in it, let her sleep in her swing (at night too) or place her on her tummy unless of course she is rolling over on her own now anyway. Most babies just do not sleep very well flat on their backs. A change in place or position can make a miraculous difference! If you don't want to do that, just continue to co-sleep or use the swing for another month or two. By then she'll probably be rolling over on her own and babies tend to sleep much better in their cribs when that happens.

Nancy

Well the girls said it best here!

One thing I will add....You wont spoil your baby by co sleeping. And the fact that you co sleep with the train there will help her learn to ignor it.