My 3 month old's sleep has gone downhill over the last week. He was waking up once to eat around 3 for several weeks with the occasional 4:30 or 5:30 wake-up which had me thinking we were headed to true STTN. But for the last week, he's been waking up earlier and earlier- tonight it was 1:15. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that he often takes a long nap in the late afternoon, early evening- today I put him down atound 4 and he slept until 7:30. Should I be waking him up rather than letting him sleep so much so close to what eiuld make sense as a bedtime?
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What time is bedtime? I know if DD napped then, she'd be up until easily 9-10pm then. Does he nap earlier in the day? I would wake him but what time depends on bedtime I think.
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@LindsayInNY: we don't have a set bedtime yet but generally follow his cues/last nap. Yesterday, he had short 45 min naps until this last long one. That is not always the case- sometimes he does take a long nap in the middle of the day. It's still so unpredictable. Yesterday, he woke up at 7:30, ate, and was asleep again at 9. But he does have a habit of longer naps at the end of the day and am wondering if impacting night sleep.
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DD is a little older (5.5 months) but we often wake her up from her last nap of the day at around 815 to 8:30 PM and then play with her, feed her, and put her to bed around 9:15 PM. She sleeps 12 hours at night after that. So at least for us, the late evening nap does not affect her nighttime sleep.
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I never ever wake a sleeping baby if I can help it. They may need the sleep, especially for 3 month growth spurt. At this age night sleep is still all over the place.
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It could just be that he is hitting a growth spurt. How long was your last sleep schedule going for? (i.e. when LO was sleeping until 3 or later). For us, DS usually takes a longer nap at 5 and be up by 6:30. He then goes to bed for the night at 8. We have never regulated his sleep and he created a schedule on his own.
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@Mrs.KMM: @Golden:@Eko: thanks for the
feedback. I guess it could be a growth spurt but I don't think he's eating more in a 24 hour period just at different times (I EP so I know how much he's eating). I actually tried giving him extra last night before bed (around 9) to see if that would help but he woke up even earlier than he had been. He is also more restless in general (fusses/needs his pacifier replaces more frequently which made me think it was more sleep related).In terms of his schedule before he started this, he seemed to like earlier bed times.for awhile, he was going to sleep for long stretch at 6ish and we'd do a dream feed around 9. But a week or so ago, he started treating them more like naps and waking up at various times. I really just started keeping a log of his daily sleep to see if I could see a pattern.
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Is he newly three months old, or is he almost four months old? The reason I ask is that I wonder if it's the 4-month sleep regression starting early....my baby was an awesome nighttime sleeper from 2-4 months, and then all hell broke loose. Not trying to scare you, but thought I'd put it out there in case he was almost four months old as an option...
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@ChiCalGoBee: he is newly 3 months (as of last Saturday). So probably not the 4 month regrrssion unless it is showing up really early!
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@abmamma: I had a reply but forgot to submit on my phone so i lost it!
In summary:
Late naps never effected my sons night time sleep. When he was still taking 3 naps his last nap would be until about 5:30 then he'd still go to bed at like 6:30/7. He did that until maybe 7 months?BUT he did go through what you are going through now around 3.5 months. He had just had his first TRUE sttn 12 hour night. I was so happy I cried. The next night - up every 2 hours starting at midnight. Then the next night starting at 11. The next night at 10pm. It was awful, I definitely posted here about it
I was miserable.
I was also staying at my parents for the holidays and sharing a room with him so I couldn't let him CIO. I know the new environment wasn't the reason becasue he had 2 good nights there before it went downhill, including his first 12 hour night.
Basically I hadn't given him a bottle overnight for weeks but I was desperate so I started giving him very small bottles when he woke. Like 2 or 3 oz. that put him back to sleep for a couple of hours. I do think it was a growth spurt or something because just as quickly as it started, it ended. After about a week he went back to sleeping 7pm till 4:30/5am. Then at that point he was about 4 months and my ped told me to let him CIO to get him to sleep till 6:30/7. We did CIO for 3 nights and he has done 12-13 hours ever since! He's now 14 months
Not advocating for CIO necessarily, it was just a part of my experience that was similar to yours in terms of happening between 3 and 4 months and waking every 2 hours out of the blue. And it's how we eventually got to 12 hours.I usually hate this advice, but I think it's probably a phase that will not last if it came on out of the blue. I'd keep to your routine as much as possible and do whatever you are comfortable with in terms of motn comforting. I usually tried rocking first and if that did nothing I did those small bottles. I was so afraid of undoing the weaning I'd already done, but it didn't seem to matter much. I think he needed it and when he didn't need it anymore he stopped waking.
Good luck! Fwiw I can barely remember it, so while it sucks now it will be a distant memory soon
I was miserable.Reply
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9 comments