3 Month Old Sleep Pattern

Wow, 16 pounds at 3 month. Your poor back! My pediatrician said that most babies are heavy enough to make it through the night at 6 months (11 to 6 AM). Counter-intuitive: if you keep feeding him at night his bowels and body stay active at night and he actually sleeps less deep. But 3 months is still so young. I used Dr. Ferber's sleep method for my 2nd which took about 2 weeks (http://www.amazon.com/Solve-Your-Childs-Sleep-Problems/dp...) but let the 1st cry it out (4 nights in a row for 4 hours each night and done!). The Ferber book also addresses naps, sleepwalking, night terrors, etc. Very useful reference to keep around. Check with his doctor. Good luck.

Hello, I love the names of your two boys. I am reading the book good night sleep tight. The sleep ladys gentle guide to helping your child go to sleep, stay asleep and wake up happy, by Kim West. I am a postpartum doula and wanted to know the normal sleep pattern of infants. One suggestion I have is putting him down to bed a little later and keeping up for two hours or so before bedtime. She does suggest the dream feed around 10 or 11 pm. By now he shouldn't need to feed that often or that many times a day unless he is not getting enough during the day because you are not there. She says they still need 6 feeding during the day with the sixth one being the 10 or 11 oclock feeding. He doesn't need to feed more than once during the last feeding around 10 or 11 so you should try other soothing techniques to get him back to sleep. I would think if your husband could go to his room and try some of the soothing techniques your son might be more accepting of them because it is not you and your scent of breast milk. Try putting him in a blanket tightly swaddled with one arm out and although he may not like it at first you will probably get more sleep out of him at night. Best of luck to you and your family.

Oh I definitely feel your pain! Unfortunately I don't think you can do much at this age - three months is so young and they are barely getting used to the world. A few thoughts:

1. It's possible he's going through a growth spurt and will start to give you longer stretches after he's through it.

2. your best option, at least temporarily, might be to go to bed as soon as you can after he does so you can get some solid sleep. I know it's not ideal but at least you'd get a good 4 hrs if you went to sleep at 8.

3. You could put him to bed later to shift the 6 hrs to a more palatable chunk of sleep for you. When my LO was that young we put her in around 9 a lot as that worked better for us. As she got older we shifted bedtime earlier, now it's 7:30.

4. You need to make sure he is getting enough sleep all day - counter-intuitively, good naps beget good nighttime sleep and vice versa. I really liked what the "baby whisperer solves all your problems" said about this (tracy hogg). This is the age where you can start to make sure he's got a good routine during the day with eating, sleeping and activity.

5. I would stick with the dream feed - when we first started it it didn't seem to help but then it did. In addition, I would try "tanking him up" before bed time - that is feeding him as much as possible in the 3 hrs or so before bed.

That's all I can think of - I do wish you you the best of luck. It is so hard to go back to work between the sleep deprivation and worrying about the little one.

Good luck!

With both my boys, I made sure that their longest stretch conicided with when I wanted to sleep. Instead of putting them to bed at 7:00 or 8:00, I would nurse them then and keep them downstairs with me until I was ready to go to bed - they usually "napped" this whole time, but then I woke them up, changed the diaper, and nursed them and then put them to bed in the crib. That way, the longest 6 or 7 hour stretch would happen at the most convenient time for me. Once they started sleeping longer, then I moved the bedtime up. It just made sense to me to adapt them to my schedule as soon as they were born. It worked for both my boys who are 2 years apart and they are both been great sleepers.

i have a 4 month old grandson who is around 15 lbs. my daugher in law starting giving him rice cereal around 7 pm when he was around 3 months old. he goes to sleep around 8 and sleep thru til 5. this is every night. When i take him overnight i do the same as far as the feeding, and he does sleep thru the night. she also has been giving him fruit in the morning also. he was getting up every hour on the hour, i told her that with him being so big, the bf is not enough. HE'S HUNGRY.
good luck!!!!!
J.