What time should bedtime be?

[Pualani8]

What's the best time for a 3 month old to go to bed? 

[vixter07]

Depends on what time your day starts! I think the idea is for approx 12 hour day, so if your LO wakes at 7:00am bedtime would be close to 7:30pm. If you were on a 3 hour routine:
Wake and E- 7:00
A- until about 8:20/8:30
S- until 10 (if you have a good napper)
Repeat above so you have
E-10
S- 11:20-1:00
E-1
S- 2:20-4:00
E-4
S- probably a cat nap sometime between 5 and 6
E- 7 (but my little one sometimes eats a bit earlier for this feed)
Wind down and in bed around 7:30.
This all varies from day to day and you likely won't have a perfect 3 hour routine but you should be aiming to have your LO in bed for 12 hours at night (as they get older). Most will get between 10 and 12 hours at night.
My LO will be 3mo next week and we start the day around 7:30 and have her in bed around 8:30. Some nights it takes her longer to fall asleep and some days she'll wake earlier or later...so we have to be flexible but we always aim for bedtime around 8:30 (right after our two year old goes to bed). A lot of babies have earlier bedtimes (6 or 7) but do what works for your family and your baby. If you notice it is really hard to get her to sleep she may be OT and you may have to make bedtime earlier!  If you like a later start time in the day (8:00) then your bedtime will likely be later than a Mom who starts her day at 6:00am.

[Pualani8]

That's pretty much what we're doing!  We just REALLY struggle with the evening catnap!  Any tricks?

You said your LO is almost 12 weeks - ours is 11 weeks on Monday.  We still struggle with bedtime and crying.  Do you?

[Layla]

My LO is 12 weeks and we still do 45 min catnaps mostly although I do manage to either extend her morning nap or afternoon nap (harder at the moment because the older girls are on school holidays). She has 4 naps and is able to stay awake approx 1.5 hrs in the morning before she takes her 1st nap and around 1.75 hrs for the other awake times. Our bedtime ranges from 6.30pm to 7.30pm and wake up ranges from 7am-8am. For all evening catnaps I don't even bother trying it in the cot, I per her in a sling and go for a walk....she fussed for 5 mins and then she falls asleep.

[vixter07]

We also use the carseat or stroller or swing for most evening catnaps as our 2 year old is home then and wants to walk or play at the park.....it works for now and our LO still really needs that catnap!
We sometimes have crying at bedtime- some nights she goes right to bed without a struggle and other nights it will take us up to 20 minutes of standing in her room and giving her the pacifier, putting hands on her, singing, etc. Our nap and bedtime routine is the same- I swaddle her, carry her to her room, hold her and sing a little song and put her in her crib with her pacifier (sometimes she doesn't need it though). I stand off to the side for a few minutes and if she is quiet she normally spits the soother out and goes to sleep. If she fusses I'll wait to see if she can calm herself. If she cries I go back over and offer the soother again, put my hands on her, or sing again. We can repeat this several times up to 20 minutes but we try not to take her out of the crib unless she gets really upset. But with doing this same thing for every nap and bedtime she really seems to get that it is sleep time and doesn't fight it too much. Usually she'll put up a fight if she is OT or if her catnap was too late and she is UT- this is why we try to get the catnap in any way possible! We try to keep about an hour or an hour and half of A time between the catnap and bedtime.