3 mo. old sleep questions

[LucyG]

My dd was three months old yesterday. She started sleeping about 8 hours a night at 9 weeks. Since then, she often wakes around 7:00-8:00 a.m. to nurse, and then goes back to sleep for another hour or two. Today, she nursed at 8:00 a.m. and is still asleep at 11:00 a.m. My question is, should I continue to let her do this? She does not nap well during the day (30 min. here or there), but is usually happy and not fussy. My understanding is that babies her age usually sleep 8-10 hours at night, and then take several naps of considerable length during the day. Her current sleep patterns are not a problem for me (and I know I could have much worse problems!), but should I be keeping her awake after the first morning feeding and trying to get her on a more regular nap schedule? Could she be going back to bed in the mornings after nursing because she needs that much sleep, but just can't go that long without nursing? She is on the small side, weighing just under 10 pounds now. She is my first baby, so I have no idea on whether this is common. Any comments are welcome! Thanks!

[blnony]

I'm of the school that at that age, you need to just let her do her thing!:) I don't think you should try any sleep training until she is older and little bigger. That said, you are actually lucky. My DD didn't start sleeping longer than three hour blocks until she was almost 5 months. I would just go with her flow right now. If you start trying to change her sleeping patterns now, it may actually have a negative effect on her sleeping at night.

[JMarie]

Aidan is much the same way - he'll sleep through the night, waking around six for a feeding (I work at seven, so it's perfect) and then back down until nine or so. After that he's pretty much awake all day until around ten, except for a short nap here and there. He's a fairly happy baby, so for the most part I'm just letting him set his own schedule. The only time he actually naps is when I take him to our gym's child care center, but they're pretty good about waking him up after about an hour's nap. I think as long as your daughter is happy and healthy, her schedule shouldn't be a problem. HTH!

Jennifer
Mom to Aidan Christopher 01/28/03

[egoldber]

I think that waking up to eat and then sleeping more is very common in babies this age. As long as she is happy and not fussy, I wouldn't worry about it. Her sleep patterns will continue to change as she gets older, this is probably only one phase.

HTH,

[Rachels]

HA! Nobody told my baby about the sleep expectations you described. In fact, she slept pretty well until she was three months old, and then things went downhill. She probably does need to nurse, though. And I personally never either had success nor saw much benefit to trying to deny sleep to a tired child, even for the purpose of scheduling. You have to do what works for you and her. Personally, I think it's great that you are feeding her when she's hungry and letting her sleep when she says she needs sleep. She's a very new person. She'll figure it all out eventually, and babies' schedules change so fast anyway. She probably won't be doing this in a month or two.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[LucyG]

Thanks for the comments! As you all have pointed out, and as I suspected, this is not unusual for a young baby. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!