Getting 3 month old to sleep through night- need your wisdom

[M]

My 3 month old sleeps 4.5 hours max. I would like to get him to go all night. I need more sleep!

We put him down at 8pm, he wakes at 12:30am, 4pm and 6am. I don't have any problems putting him down. He can put himself to sleep and he stays asleep till he cries for his next feeding.

During the day he feeds about every 2 hours. His wake time is not more than 1.5 hours. His morning nap is 1 hour, all other naps 30-45 minutes. I haven't been able yet to extend his nap to 2 hours or introduce an afternoon nap. He again goes to sleep quite easily for all his naps and is generally a happy baby.

How can I get him to sleep through the night? What time would I do DF? He only breastfeeds, but can take a bottle.

Any other tips? What do I need to do differently during the day to help night sleep?

Thanks very much.

Thanks for your help.

[Gigismom]

hi there-your day time routine sounds good to me.  don't worry about the short naps yet.  many babies at this age take short naps.  around 6-8 months, the sleep center in the brain matures so the naps will lengthen.  if he seems happy, he is probly getting enough sleep at his naps.

is he truly hungry when he feeds at night?  does he take a full feeding?  or does he just feed for a minute, then fall asleep?  if he is truly hungry, then you should feed him.  but if he is just using you to fall back to sleep, then let us know and maybe we can post some ideas for you.   

[Kimberly®]

Hi there.  I'm gonna see what I can do to help you but I'm no expert.
First a DF would be done around 10:30 11pm, and yes you can use a bottle. 
Also I just want to say, as hard as it is, its normal for a 3 month old to not sleep right through the night.
Now the best I can do is to tell you what worked for us,
We started putting out LO down at 7pm everynight.
We do a bedtime routine at 6:30, a bath, a story and a last bottle before putting her to bed awake. She'll sometimes talk to herself before she goes to sleep but she's good at putting herself to sleep.
At 10:30pm-11pm I give her a DF and then head for bed myself.
At first she only made it to 2am, then 3am, then 4am untill she finally made it all the way to 7am. The odd time she still wakes at about 5:30am.

Keep in mind this wont work overnight. We started this at 8weeks and she wasn't sleeping through till about 10 weeks and that was to 5:30am she's onlly gone 12 hours for about a week. 

Its actually, as far as I know, very unusual for a 3 month old to go 12 hours at a strech. We're very lucky.

You can give this a try, but try to remember as hard as it is, your LO is different then everyone elses. Eventually He'll sleep through for you, it just takes time.

HTH

[M]

Thanks to both of you for your quick replies. I really appreciate it. I feel better now that you said 3 month olds don't generally sleep through the night. People lately have been saying he should be sleeping through the night so that got me thinking about what to do. But I'll relax now!

When he wakes up for each feed during the night, he takes a full feed - 10 minutes for each one. So seems he is hungry and not just wanting to be comforted.

My husband  tried the DF last night at 10:30pm. My hubby didn't realize he wanted a lot and took the bottle out of his mouth before he was finished. So he cried a lot and I had to get up and BF him and he went back to sleep till 2 am. So maybe being optimistic it did stretch it out??? :)We put him down at 8:30 and usually he wakes up again at 12:30 and with the DF he woke up at 2am with the brief interruption.

So we'll try again tonight! Thanks again. It's great having the support. I may have more questions.

[M]

Thanks to both of you for your quick replies. I really appreciate it. I feel better now that you said 3 month olds don't generally sleep through the night. People lately have been saying he should be sleeping through the night so that got me thinking about what to do. But I'll relax now!

When he wakes up for each feed during the night, he takes a full feed - 10 minutes for each one. So seems he is hungry and not just wanting to be comforted.

My husband  tried the DF last night at 10:30pm. My hubby didn't realize he wanted a lot and took the bottle out of his mouth before he was finished. So he cried a lot and I had to get up and BF him and he went back to sleep till 2 am. So maybe being optimistic it did stretch it out??? :)We put him down at 8:30 and usually he wakes up again at 12:30 and with the DF he woke up at 2am with the brief interruption.

So we'll try again tonight! Thanks again. It's great having the support. I may have more questions for you wise moms!

[Duckie]

Just so you know too - many books, when they refer to "sleeping through the night" means a 5 hr stretch.  So, really.....you're almost there?

Good luck!

[M]

Hello again

Yippee! It worked last night (our 2nd night of trying DFing). We put him down at 8pm. Then my hubby gave him a DF at 10pm. Didn't really turn out to be a DF as he woke right up and was very alert and drank a lot.  We got him back down after some crying and fussing and he slept till 3am! I can't believe it. Then I fed him again and he slept till 6am. Then again and he slept till 7:30am then up to start the day. I am so excited. We'll keep doing and hopefully continue to meet with success.

We hope to actually make it a DF where he will drink and then fall back to sleep while lying down. Is that how it is done? The last 2 nights we've had to take him out of the crib to feed him as he fusses and cries. Maybe he'll start getting used to it so we can leave him in the crib to feed.

Is this how it evolves? Did you have to start with taking the LO out of the crib or did he/she immediately take from the bottle while lying down?

It was great to get more sleep. I think I got too much I couldn't sleep after 4am! I'm so used to just a few hours.

Thanks again for your help everyone.

[Gigismom]

well, i strictly bf as dd would never take a bottle, so i had to get her out of the crib for every dream feed.  she did wake up a few times, but generally she stayed asleep through the whole picking up, feeding, and putting back down.

[albertasweetpea]

Hey M - congrats on getting the DF to work and getting a few more hours of sleep yourself!!  :lol: When we started the DF with Molly I would often go to bed when she did (7 pm or so) and let DH do the DF to get myself a good stretch of sleep before I had to do the middle of the night feed.
We also started doing the DF at about the same age you are if I remember correctly? We started by taking her out of the crib and feeding her (she is exclusively bottle fed) and once she got the hang of it (and I got over my neurosis of fearing she would choke or something  :oops:) we started just feeding her while she was asleep in her crib.
Congratulations again, what a wonderful difference a few extra hours of sleep makes!  :lol:

[M]

Good to know you all would take your LO out of the crib for the DF. I scolded my hubby for doing that!  But now seems that's the way to get it started till they get used to the DF without waking up. Last night he wouldn't take it but slept 5 hours. Yes also good idea to go right to bed when the LO goes down. I do that too. Thanks again for your replies with great information. Much appreciated.