12 Week Old Sleep Issue

Babies are all different in their sleep requirements. He may be requiring less sleep as he gets older, so you might try either eliminating a nap or putting him down for the night a little later, say at 8 o'clock. He may be tired but just not quite ready for sleep earlier. Also, do you have a sleep routine before you put him down? Try a warm bath, some quiet time with cuddling or reading a book.
This is from sungrammy, mother of 3, grandmother of 6.

My daughter is 12 1/2 weeks and her schedule is similar. She wakes up early is up for 1 1/2 2 hours, then naps for an hour. Is up again for 2-3 hours and goes down for a long nap. Is up again for a few hours and catnaps around 6pm. She is then up until 9 or 10pm and then is down for the night, no night-time feedings, she sleeps straight through. I think where you are running into problems is if he is catnapping at 5pm you can't expect him to go down again around 6pm. He is not ready, he just woke up. Your son's schedule is just like my daughters. It is okay to let him stay up later. Once a set schedule is established, I will be doing at 4 or 5 months, it will be different. Your son is still setting his schedule. Let him dictate his bedtime for a little while longer. You could be misreading his cues and maybe he is fussy or seems tired because he wants to cuddle or interact. Try something different and see if the results change.

try to not put him down for a cat nap at 5, that way he will be ready for bed at 6pm.

Hi T.,
I really LOVED the book The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems. The book recommends a 3 hour eating and sleeping schedule for a 3 month old, and 3 month olds still need a lot of sleep. Both of my kids were sleeping through the night at 3 months using this book and have been good sleepers since. In addition to the eating and feeding schedule, she recommends a "dream feed." Basically you feed the baby before they go to bed at around 7:30. Then at around 10 pm you feed them without waking them. She also recommends a bedtime routine, but there is a huge section on identifying why your baby isn't sleeping and suggestions on how to fix the problem(s). babywhisperer.com has some good resources including the message boards.
Good luck whatever you end up trying,
C.

My son is only 3 weeks old and he stays awake throughout most of the day. He only takes one long nap at around 1:00-3:30 and then he is up for most of the evening until around 8:30 or 9:00. Even then he wakes up around 11:00 and wants to be talked to until his last feeding and falls asleep for the night at about 11:30 or 12:00 and sleeps through the night. Different babies have different body clocks. It sounds to me like your baby is sleeping plenty and you just need to make his naps more uniform. Hope this helps...it's just my opinion, but at 12 weeks of age they are not still sleeping like newborns. Or at least my daughter wasn't. Good luck!

With him taking a cat nap until 5, he is not going to be ready for bed at 6 or 6:30. Do you have a bedtime routine?
Sleeping from 9 until 6 or 7 am is great. You might want to consider an evening bath, baby massage, reading books, and singing to him, instead of trying to put him to bed.

I would think that with all the sleep he's getting during the day (total of three naps) that he would be able to stay awake from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. sounds like that's what you should do - let him stay up until 9:00 p.m. If he's taking three naps per day, a 10 hour night is probably sufficient!

At 3 months old my daughter was on a similar schedule, except we didn't put her down until around 9 or 9:30. She took long naps during the day. She could go from about 9-7 (or longer) without eating. My husband would put her in bed with me and we would sleep in until 9 and then she would eat. Some babies can go 10-12 hours without eating (mine did). She was also in the 99 percentile for weight and eclusively breastfed at the time. At 5 months is when I put her on a better schedule. She would go to sleep by 7:30 and wake up around 6:15 and eat.

Hi T.,
I HIGHLY recommend reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. He explains biological sleep rhythms and how/when they evolve/mature. It sounds like your little guy is becoming overtired by the end of the day. You didn't say at what time he was taking the two long naps. You might try putting him back to sleep after 2 hours of wakefulness. It isn't until 3-4 months that the natural morning nap evolves around 9am, until this biological sleep matures he may need less time in between naps. At about 3-4 months my daughter was going to bed at around 6:30-7pm, waking around 6:30-7am, napping at 9am and 1pm for at least 1 hour and taking a quick nap around 4pm. When I noticed her taking a longer late afternoon nap I eliminated it and moved her bedtime earlier. I would try getting him back in bed within 2 hours. Make sure you have a good bedtime routine and a shorter nap routine. Giving them cues like darkening the room and quieting things helps alot. Email me if you have any questions. I still use Dr. Weissbluth's book as a reference for my 3 yr old daughter.
Sincerely,
L.

hi T. - i don't remember too well but i feel like 4 mo. old is still a little young to be sleeping such a big chunk through the night - i hope you get some good/better advice/info from the other moms! also, have you done any reading about it? there is a great book on baby sleeping habits/training called babywise that helped us. best of luck :)

My baby at that age would stay awake from 5 pm wake up nap till 8 or 9pm and be ready to fall asleep, so take cues from him, maybe try a baby sling or Moby carrier around 7 or 7:30 to get him sleepy and ready to go down. My son took 2 long naps at this age and went to bed at around 9pm with out a 5 pm cat nap, although he would sleep in till 9 am or so
good luck and try to take the cues from your little one

My daughter is now 14 weeks, and she has never slept much during the day, she's always been a good night sleeper, but is usually awake (and happy) most of the day. She used to sleep from 9pm until 10am with 2 wake ups in between for breastfeeding, and then she wouldn't nap at all during the day unless we were running errands in the car, or on a walk. My daughter now takes a 2 hour nap during the day and sleeps from 8pm until 11am (still with 2 feedings), bottom line is all babies are different, and some just need less sleep than others, if you've tried everything and still can't get your little one to sleep between 5 and 9, then maybe he just doesn't need that much sleep.

T., Congrats on the baby! My son is 12 weeks and we have him on a schedule that seems to be working (so far). Every night we give him a bath at 8pm, feed him and put him to sleep. He wakes p around 3am for a feeding and then he's up by 6 or 7. After that feeding he will take one nap around 9 and then he will be up from 12 to 4-5. We then put him down for a small nap until 6:30 then get him up to keep him up so he will be tired by 8:30. He does have one long stretch during the day when he is awake. It seems to be fine for him we just try to put him down every three hours or so. Ultimately we can not choose their schedules. Good luck to you.

Both of my kids seemed to be fussy during the hours of 5-8pm, which always made dinner time so much fun! I'm joking of course. Do you have a bedtime routine, like bath, feeding, rocking in a quiet room? Also, as hard as it was I tried to put my kids to bed while they were still awake so they could get used to putting themselves to sleep. Well, good luck, at least he is sleeping well through the night. You will probably notice many nap/ sleeping schedule changes in the first year. Just when I figured out a good schedule my children's sleep patterns changed.

I just wanted to tell you that my son did the exact same thing, like I could have written that exact post a month ago!! my son is 16 weeks today, and well, from like 10ish weeks to about 13ish weeks he did that exact thing. He would sleep all night, wake up in the morning around 6, eat, and go back to sleep till like 9 or 10, which is lucky for me since I am NOT a morning person. Then throughout the day he would take 2 good size naps, maybe a smaller one, and then come the time Daddy gets home (between 5 and 6) he would cry the rest of the night. I called him my champion fighter because he fought sleep like nothing I had ever seen!! It just seemed to pass. The crying in the evening got less and less, and he napped a little less during the day (probably because he is getting older) and now he still has the same night and morning schedule, and sometimes he naps during the day and some times not (the days he doesnt are a struggle by the end of the day, as he is crying because he is so tired) but needless to say, the incessant crying in the evening until bedtime has pretty much stopped. The only time now that he cries in the evening is right before bed, at about 9 and that is because he hasnt napped properly and is way too tired. I guess what I am trying to say, is I went through the same thing just a month ago, and he out grew it. He got better and now we have very enjoyable evenings together. I would just suggest to give it time. Good luck! I hope he settles down!