help - starting the EASY routine at 3 months

[kellyjane]

Hi. Can you believe that I have just discovered the magic of the baby whisperer!!!  My baby is now 3 months old and to date i have been feeding on demand.  I have a text book baby and he has actually got himself into a routine and feeds around every 3 hours.  He is not yet sleeping through the night; often wakes at 2am and 5am    Any advice offered is welcomed.

[* Paula *]

Hi and welcome to the BW website.

Can you post what your day looks like at the moment i.e.

E
A - how long
S - including winddown and how long he sleeps

and we can help you tweak your routine.

[kellyjane]

Sorry for such a delay in responding. My "normal" day is as follows -

Wakes up 6am offer food - aim to get up by 6.30am (still seems tired at this point, but i cannot get him to go back down)
Activity normally until around 8am - at this point he starts to get a little fussy
8 am - 9am - Sleep (although this can vary from 20 mins sleep to 1 1/2 hours)
9am - feed
9.15 - Activity including getting dressed
11.30 am - Sleep (as above)
12.30 pm - feed
12.45 pm - Activity
4pm - sleep (as above)
5pm - feed
6pm - bath
7pm - bed
11pm - feed
2am - 2.30am - feed
4.30am - 5am - feed

Over the past few weeks it is getting harder to put him down to sleep - he gets upset and fusses a lot and on a normal day he is only getting 3 1/2 - 4 hours sleep during the day!  Also my one bad habit that I need to over come is that he generally falls asleep whilst feeding!

Any help is appreciated.

[* Paula *]

Looking at your routine, I would say that you lo is extremely over tired.

You say your lo wakes at 6:00, and you don't generally put him down for his first nap until 8:00 - this is 2 hours A time, and is way to long for a 3 month old.

Your lo then has a second nap, and then does not nap again for 3.5 hours.

At 3 months, their A time is generally about 1.25 - 1.5 hours.  I would aim for a routine something like this:-

E - 6:00
A - 6:00 - 7:15
S - 7:15 - 9:00

E - 9:00
A - 9:00 - 10:30
S - 10:30 - 12:00

E - 12:00
A - 12:00 - 1:30
S - 1:30 - 3:00

E - 3:00
A - 3:00 - 4:30
S - 4:30 - 5:15 (45 minute cat nap)

A - 5:15 - 6:00
E - 6:00
S - 6:30ish for the night

If your lo falls alseep with feeding, I would wake your lo up, change nappy, and then have a bit of A time.

Do you have a wind down routine?  Is your lo swaddled?

Have you tried pat / shhh to get your lo back to sleep when he wakes?

Can you try and log how a typical day looks with how long naps are etc, so that we can try and get a better picture to see how well your lo copes with A times etc.