3 Month old - not sleeping during day at all !!!

[TaylorsDad]

Hi, Myself and my qife are a little worried about the lack of sleep our three month old is getting...

Below is the idea that I read on this forum:
3 months old:
Night: 10 hours;
Day: 5 hours - 3 naps, 2 naps of 1.75 hours and 1 of 1.5 hours;
Total:  15 hours

Our daughter is just about getting through the night from around 10pm - 7am - which is fab !  The hour or two in the evening before 10pm she may have another half an hour.

Through the day she will only have about 3 naps of 20-30 minutes.  Sometimes she can do better but mostly she doesn't sleep that much through the day.

Her weight gain and health is good.
She is alert and very happy and smiley.
She has a 2.5 yr old brother. Is she keeping an eye on him and not letting her guard down?

My thoughts are as follows:

1. She is just getting to the 'sleeping through the night' and her body clock is doing some adjusting.
2. We have had some building work done on the house and she has being staying away (with Mummy) for two weeks out of the 'building site'. This has been unsettleing??
3. We are not yet able to put her in her own nursery to sleep during the day (hence the builing) and this means we can't really leave her..

Will the nursery help?
Will a regular 'through-the-night' sleep help?
Will being back at home settle her into a routine and help?

thanks

Tim (TaylorsDad)

[Mia & Scarlett's Mummy]

Hi Tim - It's very nice to have a dad on the boards.  Welcome!

You seem to be answering your own questions very well.  I think a lot of the time when you have a theory over what is affected dc sleep you are quite often on the right lines.

It may help you to know that for the first three months or so babies work on sleeping through the night.  That is their brains are focused on sleeping for up to 12 hours straight.  This is often at the expense of daytime sleep which can be a bit all over the place, hence some short, erratic naps.  For the next 3 months (once they have sorted their nightime sleep) they focus on regulating daytime naps and lengthening them.  Different parts of the brain control naps and nightime sleep apparently so this is partly why.

Although you've given us some great info, would you post your dd's daily routine please?  The one thing that jumps out at me is that 10pm is a late bedtime.  Going purely off this she could be overtired, but a detailed breakdown of her day will give us more idea.

Also can you describe your wind down routine for naps and bedtime if you have one?

While some babies are surprisingly adaptable it may be that the change to her routine and building work has disturbed her a little - especially is she is touchy/grumpy.  So where is she currently taking her daytime naps and night time sleeps?  And how quite is your house?  (I'm guessing not very with a toddler charging about!)

And finally do you have either of the baby whisperer books?