3 months old-what's your nap schedules like? - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

Gayle0000 · 12-02-2005, 04:19 PM

Ava is 3 months old. Up until a week or so ago, she took a decent 1-2 hour nap in the morning, and again in the afternoon, with bedtime anywhere from 8-10pm...just whenever she would doze off on her own. All was right with the world.

All of a sudden, the 2 good naps have become 20-30 mins max, and is sleeping very lightly. She is awake the rest of the day. She gets fussy because she needs a nap (you can tell by looking at her she needs one). About half of these catnaps now is me rocking her to sleep.

Most all babies take naps...right? All except mine I think.

Is this a phase at this age? Thanks.

gel2005 · 12-02-2005, 05:38 PM

my dd went through that, about the age of your little one too. The would take three 30 minute naps. Her sleep schedle got better around the time she started sleeping throught the night, about 5 1/2 months. She is now 9 1/2 months old and sleeps 9am to 11am, 2pm to 4pm and 7:30pm to 7am. The Dr said that I am very lucky that she sleeps so well, but she always didn't. She still has her times. But I do remember going through what you are. the only way I could get her to sleep was to nurse or rock her, then if I put her down, that would be the end of that. It is all normal, just a faze that we hopefully end for you. Best of luck for you and your little one.

Karen62705 · 12-02-2005, 06:45 PM

At three months old DS napped for 20 minutes every two hours. That went on the entire day. He's now 5 months old and sleeps from 7:30pm-7:30am, 10:00am-12:00, and 3:00pm till 4:30-5.

From everyone I talked to @ three months those little "cat naps" are pretty common.

Is she sleeping through the night now?

Gayle0000 · 12-02-2005, 08:32 PM

It's soooo good to hear you guys say this! Karen...Hi...you ask if she's sleeping thru the night now...

Before this catnap thing started, she was consistently sleeping a solid 6-7 hours in a row every night with good naps in the day, getting up around 3-4am when I'd nurse her. I was actually working with her to lull her back to sleep for another couple hours without feeding her, and it was working well...until the recent catnap phase began.

Now all of a sudden she's up every 2-3 hours every night...with only catnaps in the day. I have started nursing her in the middle of the night every time she gets up because it's easier on her (and me!!!) to just feed her so she'll go back to sleep for another couple hours. On nights I try to not nurse her each time, it's a big cry/screamfest...and we are both awake until I break down and nurse.

Spanish · 12-03-2005, 03:59 AM

Hi Gayle. LOL, have a look at my thread on controlled crying to see the nap problems that I'm having with my 4-month old DD! She can go 10 hours without sleeping! The Health Visitor suggested controlled crying and I tried it once last night but it was a disaster and nearly broke my heart. She either seems to take three 45 minute naps during the day or go all day without sleeping and then crash out for three hours about 4pm.

Today we tried putting her down before she was noticeably tired and right at this moment she seems to have dropped off to sleep. Hopefully we'll have a good nap day today....

Are you breastfeeding? If so, three months is a very common age for a growth spurt. My DD had one then was feeding every 2 - 3 hours day and night for four days solid. I was exhausted and tearful and almost ready to stop breastfeeding but she did come through it and is back to sleeping 7 or 8 hours solid at night. When she gets up in the night and you nurse her, is she hungry? I mean does she have a good feed? If so then you need to keep offering her the feed in the night. Many, many breastfed babies need feeding once if not twice a night during the third and fourth months. They are far less likely to go right through the night than formula fed babies. My DD is currently going to bed about 8pm but I then get her up and feed her again at 10.30pm and after that she'll go through to about 6am.

Good luck

Spanish