3 Month Old Not Sleeping Well

How much is she eating? Could that be it? I found that the best way to get my kids on a good sleep schedule was to make sure they were eating on a schedule. I did bottle feed so that did help and it would be trickier while breastfeeding, but still doable I think. I should add that I fed them every three hours and if they were asleep I woke them up. Both my kids were sleeping through the night at 2.5 months for my daugher and 4 months for my son, and by sleeping through the night, it was a solid 8 hours at least.

Is she over stimulated? Do you have lots of outings or visitors or lots of noise going on all day? Maybe she's just over it and can't calm down enough to sleep.

The first six months is the hardest! Hang in there and I hope you figure it out!

Babies go thru stages of sleeping well and not so well. My granddaughter just turned 5 mos. Around 3 months she was sleeping much as you describe your baby. Before that she was sleeping thru the night. Now her sleeping is getting better again.

What all have you tried so far besides CIO (that also didn't work for my son and STILL doesn't. If he's overtired, he'll just work himself up and I have to rock him)? Will she sleep in a swing? When my son was this age he had difficulty sleeping flat on his back for to long so I had him sleep a lot in his bouncer. Do you try just letting her sleep with you? Sometimes the warmth of your body is soothing for them. I swore I would never co-sleep, but son ended up fighting me and he had to be transitioned slowly from my bed/chest/anywhere right next to me to his swing to his bouncer to his crib. It was a long process and he still does some napping in his swing (although I'm really trying to break this!).

Probably not the "correct" answer, but... if she falls back asleep (from naps) when you pick her up, can you just plan to let her nap for the 45 minutes then when she rouses, gently get her and sit somewhere comfy and let her fall back asleep to finish the rest of her nap? Getting that uninterrupted sleep is important for them to get into the deep sleep cycles. She is really too young to do any CIO.

I did the Babywise with my two. It's been many years ago now, but I recall a section that discusses babies starting to rouse around 45 minutes into their nap. That if you let them fuss a minute (or three) they often will go back to sleep for the "rest" of their nap. But if your daughter isn't, then I don't think it is wrong to pick her up and let her cuddle with you and go back to sleep. You said you read Babywise, did you try following the order of activities they suggest? Feed, awake, sleep, feed, awake, sleep. Not Feed, sleep, awake, feed, sleep, awake. We had great success with that order in our house. Especially overnight (that's the only time you skip the awake part and feed them and put them back to sleep). It isn't an instant thing, though. It took a few weeks to get into the rhythm of it and for the sleep cycles to stretch out.

I have had a couple of babies in my care that just refused to nap for more than about 20 min. Well look, if you are in my care for 9+ hours a day you are going to take a nap!!! What I found with these kiddos was putting them in a sleeper, Comfy OshKosh super soft kind, they relaxed and slept better. I do let them cry for a little bit, they all need to learn to soothe themselves.

Just an idea.

Good Luck!

We swaddle our son during the day for naps. It helps him get past the initial 45 minutes. At 3 months he grew out of the small swaddle and could kick out of blankets, so I got him a swaddle in large. Also the swing helps too. When he gets a little restless in the crib. I pick him up before he cries and rock him back to sleep.

My youngest son had nap time sleeping issues as well. He would sleep great in the swing (up to 2hrs or more), he would sleep on the floor on the playgym thing for up to about an hour, and would fall asleep in the car fairly easily. But getting him to nap in his crib was difficult. We would put him down in there, he'd sleep for 30-45min, then wake up, but if we put him in the swing soon after he was out for a longer time. We just kept up with that and let him have atleast one good nap in the swing. He's now 6mo and does great naps in the crib :) At night we have just always stuck with the routine of what I like to call the "3 B's", bath, boob, bed. He would wake up 2-3times a night, then 1-2, now I think we're finally turning the corner of sleeping most nights all night and if he wakes up I don't go to him unless he cries - if he's fussing or just talking I just leave him and he goes back to sleep. I'm with Katie B on the co-sleeping a little bit. When he was younger (under 3mo I think), sometimes the only way to get him to sleep either during the day or in the early morning before everyone else was ready to get up was to lay down with him, nurse him and let him fall back to sleep in my arms. I swore I'd never do that, but when he was up every 2-3hrs and I had my then almost 4yr old to take care of too, thats what we'd do, nap on the couch or in the bed together. I wish you luck and hopefully she will outgrow it!

I feel your pain! I'm a huge fan of CIO, but three months is too young for it. Most of the experts recommend waiting until at least 4 months, and I tried around 3 months with both of my kids and it didn't work and they ended up really clingy afterwards. Then I waited and tried again when they were 4 months and it worked beautifully. So my advice is to hang in there for another month. Get some good baby carriers and practice babywearing. Until she's around 4 months it doesn't matter if the sleep is motionless or not... it's more important that she's getting sleep. Put her in a Moby wrap and just wear her around the house all day. When she drifts off to sleep in there (which she will), it's a super comfy carrier and you can sit back on the couch or in a reclining chair, put your feet up, and watch tv or read a book for a bit to rest. She might sleep longer this way, or she might not. But know that everything at this stage is totally temporary.

The night feeding actually seems very normal, so stick with that. My son woke up every one to two hours all night long and it literally drove me crazy (I got PPD). You've probably got one or two rough months and then it should get better. Good luck!

BTW: for more advice on babywearing check out babywearing international of chicagoland on facebook.

Oh, and I just remembered something else I would do. I let my babies fall asleep at the breast at this age and I read a book for an hour (sometimes two) while they slept in my arms. Very soon they would no longer sleep in my arms, so it was a wonderful way to pass the time and very short lived!

sounds like a typical 3 month old. wait until they start teething and are up all night! mine was a good sleeper until the teeth started around 6 months....also CIO is not meant to be done on a baby under 6 months. pease look at the research before doing such drastic measures