Sleep routines for 3 month old?

[EMRW Mum]

Greetings everyone.  I'm looking for some advice on sleep routines for a three month old.  She is bottle fed and on a four hour feeding routine which she established for herself.  Until recently I have been allowing her to decide sleep and eating schedules for herself....just watching her closely and reading her signals.  It has been working really well and she just set a four hour routine for herself quite nicely.  She began sleeping through the night around 13 weeks....then the time change happened sending us back an hour....and this stopped....but not just off by an hour....she began waking at 4:00am again.....and hasn't slept through the night.....since.

when sleeping through the night her day looked like this.

E     7:00 am     7oz
A     7:30 - 10:45am

E     10:45am     3 oz
A     None (fell asleep eating)
S     11:00am - 1:30pm

E     2:15pm     5oz
A     None (fell asleep eating)
S     2:30pm - 3:30pm
A     3:30 - 5:30pm

E     5:30pm     3 oz
A     6:00 - 7:30 (bath & massage)
E     7:30pm     6 oz
S     8:30 pm till 7:45am the next morning


Recently her days look more like this:

E     7:00am    6 oz
A     7:30 - 9:00am
S     9:00 - 10:30am

E     11:00am     6 oz
A     11:30am - 12:15pm
S     12:15pm - 1:00pm
A     1:00pm - 3:00pm

E     3:00pm     6 oz
A     3:30 - 4:00pm
S     4:00pm - 7:00pm ( I woke her)

E     7:00pm     5oz
A     None
S     8:00pm - 4:30am

I'm not sure what to do or stop doing to get her back on track....or if I should just go back to letting her set her own routine again.  I should mention that she also has reflux and milk intolerance so this makes laying her down after eating a challenge.

any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I'd love to have her on a more consistent routine.......

Thanx

Corrine

[Mia & Scarlett's Mummy]

Hello, the first thing I've noticed with her current routine is that she is napping for 1.5 hours in the morning and then for only 45 minutes and then a massive nap late afternoon.  So it looks like come late afternoon she is so exhausted she's she's not napping but using up her allocated hours for sleep at night - so this may be why she's waking up very early in the morning.  So currently her nightime sleep is starting from 4pm meaning and 4.30am wake up.

I think if you put some structure back into her day napwise you will get back on track.  Have you thought about limiting her first nap to just 45minutes?  That way she will probably take a longer second nap around lunchtime leaving her not so overtired that she starts eating into her nightime sleep late afternoon.  At around 3-4 months I did this routine with Mia:

7.00 wake
8.45 nap
9.30 wake
11.30 nap (anything up to 3 hours)
2.30 wake
4.30 cat nap (45 minutes_
5.15 wake
7.00 pm bed

That worked well for me.  I can understand you needing a more consistent routine for her.  I think to get it you are going to have to take a bit of control back rather than let her take the lead.

HTH

[Emms mom]

thanks for the suggestion....I will definately give that a try.  It's hard waking her though when I know that she is so exhausted.....and craving sleep....I feel guilty.  but I'm having a hard time organizing my day and going to programs with her or even just running errands.  I think I am a consistency addict 

[Emms mom]

Sorry for the confusion...I changed my username....from EMRW to Emms mom...but it's still me.

[kbella]

Just checking to see if waking her early from her 1st nap help with the later nap?  My 3 month old tends to take a longer 1st nap and then the naps after that are all 45 minutes.  It's hell.  Today she took 1.5 hours the first nap and then 4 - FOUR - 45 minute naps the rest of the day. 

[Mia & Scarlett's Mummy]

Whenever Mia started 45 minute napping I would always limit her first nap of the day to 45 minutes to try and ensure a good second nap.

HTH

[Mason's Mum]

I'm pretty new at this, but I have a few suggestions.  I would agree that you need to help your LO with naps.  I would try to limit that first nap too - and not let your LO sleep so long in the afternoon.  I've found that if my LO sleeps for too long in the afternoon, his nighttime sleep is definitely affected.  I also think it might be helpful to set a bedtime between 7 and 8 to see if he'll sleep in a bit for you.  My LO tends to gravitate towards a 12 hour day/night.  Hope this helps.