help with 3 month old sleep patterns

My DS will be 3 months old next week and we cannot get him to sleep more than 3-4 hours per night. Once he wakes for that next feeding, he will fuss and only sleep for 15 or 20 minutes. Did anyone go through this? How and when did it get better? The lack of sleep is catching up to me after 3 months

Re: help with 3 month old sleep patterns

Have you tried increasing his formula? my son is 3 months and i give him 6oz. Although he does not always finish his bottle it does help him strech out the times in between. i can get him to go 5 hours!

Re: help with 3 month old sleep patterns

yes, we have tried to increase it but he doesn't want anymore than he normally takes, its frustrating because he will push the bottle out with his tongue, I was hoping that more in his tummy would help

Re: help with 3 month old sleep patterns

That must be so hard. When he wakes up after 3-4 hours (not ideal and not my experience, but still totally normal at 3 mo), how do you react? It would be best if you fed him in the dark, didn't change his diaper unless it was full of poop, and didn't make eye contact. That "no eye contact" thing is a biggie. Let him know that it's still sleep time. He's not going to get any playtime with you.

Also, at 3 months you don't need to respond to him immediately when he cries. After that first feeding, if he wakes up again in an hour you know he's not hungry and doesn't need anything. He just wants your attention. So try responding slowly - give him a few minutes to try to fall back to sleep on his own. And if you still need to respond to him, do as little as possible - put the binky in his mouth, or rub his head or his chest soothingly, etc. Try not to pick him up if you don't have to. 3 months is too young to CIO, but that doesn't mean you have to smother him with attention when he cries for you (if that's what you're doing).

Good luck!

Message edited 2/23/2012 1:31:17 PM.

Re: help with 3 month old sleep patterns

Posted by DavaDay

That must be so hard. When he wakes up after 3-4 hours (not ideal and not my experience, but still totally normal at 3 mo), how do you react? It would be best if you fed him in the dark, didn't change his diaper unless it was full of poop, and didn't make eye contact. That "no eye contact" thing is a biggie. Let him know that it's still sleep time. He's not going to get any playtime with you.

Also, at 3 months you don't need to respond to him immediately when he cries. After that first feeding, if he wakes up again in an hour you know he's not hungry and doesn't need anything. He just wants your attention. So try responding slowly - give him a few minutes to try to fall back to sleep on his own. And if you still need to respond to him, do as little as possible - put the binky in his mouth, or rub his head or his chest soothingly, etc. Try not to pick him up if you don't have to. 3 months is too young to CIO, but that doesn't mean you have to smother him with attention when he cries for you (if that's what you're doing).

Good luck!