Basic EASY sleep question for 3 month old

[mvc0609]

Apologies if this is a simple question, but I'm a bit confused on the sleep patterns for infants at night. In the book it says that you can expect about 8 hours of night sleep for a 1-3 month old baby for a total sleep amount of about 15-18 hours. Does this mean that after those 8 hours have passed, you should get the baby up for the day? The EASY schedule recommends having the day start at 7am and end at 8pm, which means it leaves 11 hours of "night sleep time." If a 1-3 month old baby can only really be expected to do 8 hours, what do we do with the other three (to get to 7am)? Treat it as night time with a feeding and going back to bed, or starting the day? Thanks!

[creations]

Hello and welcome to BW forums
sorry to see you had to wait a couple of days for a reply.

The 8 hrs over night sleep is the longest stretch without feeding that you can expect, it doesn't mean all babies can go 8hrs between night feeds but some will.  There is a FAQ here which shows a # next to the 8hr and explains at the end of the list that it is a long stretch of sleep and not the total night sleep.
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85130.0
It's just guidance though.
Yes a LO would be expect to do more like an 11hr night, some do 10, some 12.  As a rough guide it could be:
BT (bed time) 8pm
DF (dream feed) 10/11pm
stretch of sleep without feeding max 8hr (often less for young babies)
NF (night feed) whenever the long stretch of sleep ends, it could be 3, 4, 5hrs rather than 8
WU (wake up time in the morning) 7am

I'd just like to add a note about night feeds. More modern research since the books were written show that babies this age do need night feeds and particularly breast fed babies should be fed on demand day and night. On the forums we would not recommend trying to drop a night feed unless LO is really ready for it.  We believe Tracy would have updated her books had she still been with us to do so as she always took research into account.
If you are not sure about the night feeds or any aspect of your routine please do feel welcome to post here or to any of the appropriate boards. No question is too simple and we try to offer advice based on the EASY and BW methods and your own individual LO.

hope this helps