What's the typical bedtime routine for a 3-month-old baby? Bottle feed (be sure they stay awake for this entire feed and it's a good feed), bath, diaper change. Then into the Zen Swaddle or Zen Sack for story time and cuddles, before kisses goodnight and putting baby into their sleep area.
What time should a 3 month old go to bed? At this age, we start to see bedtimes shift earlier. Plan for bedtime to be 12 - 14 hours after waking for the day but no earlier than 6:00 PM. That means an optimal bedtime for a baby waking around 6:00 AM will be between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
Plus, newborns don't have enough of a sense of day and night to have any predictable patterns. But when your baby is around 6 to 8 weeks of age, you can try starting a bedtime routine. It should be very short at first — maybe just a cuddly feeding and a brief reading of a book.
Sample schedule for a 3-month-old
At three months, baby is generally sleeping 11-12 hours at night and 3-4 hours during the day. Most will take three naps per day, others four; usually one of those naps is longer — often the morning nap — and the others may be as short as 30 minutes. 8:00a – Play!
However, most babies do best with a bedtime between 7:00-8:00 pm starting sometime around three months old. Others do best with an 8:00- 10:00 pm bedtime until closer to five months. Some signs that your baby needs that 7-8pm bedtime include fighting sleep, fussy evenings, more night wakings, or early morning wakings.
Quality sleep tends to happen before midnight for most babies (and adults!) so don't be afraid of an earlier bedtime. Find your child's “sleep sweet spot”, then stick to it – for babies younger than 12 weeks, bedtime should be around 9PM to 10PM. Babies older than 12 weeks do best with bedtime around 7PM to 8PM.
Babies fight sleep for a variety of reasons the seven most common being separation anxiety, overtiredness, overstimulation, teething, hitting a milestone, traveling and discomfort or illness.
But many say that babies are ready for a general schedule between 2 and 4 months of age. Most infants' sleeping and feeding habits become more consistent and predictable after three or four months. You may want to take this opportunity to encourage your baby to follow a more defined schedule.
Night wake ups are still really variable at 3 months. Anywhere between 2 and 6 times a night is normal. If you've got a baby who's been waking up 6 times a night for 2 months straight, you might feel at your wit's end, but you should know that this is not something to be alarmed about.
Between the age of 3 and 6 months, some babies have 2 or 3 longish sleeps during the day, while others just have short naps. A few sleep 12 hours at night without interruption, some manage 8 hours while many others wake fairly regularly for feeds. Most have learned to sleep more at night than they do during the day.
Should a feeding be part of your bedtime routine? # Yes! A good feeding before bed is an important part of getting in those much-needed daytime calories.
By age 3 months, and sometimes as early as 2 months, most infants are sleeping through the night, according to a new study, although their sleeping hours may not exactly match those of their parents early on.
How long should my 3-month-old nap? At 3 months old your baby should be taking 3-5 naps per day, each 1 to 3 hours long—with the exception of the last nap of the day which should not go past 6:30, so you may need to cut that nap short.
Even at 3 months, an age when some babies could start sleeping for longer stretches, letting them cry it out isn't recommended. It's best to wait until your baby is at least 4 months old before attempting any form of sleep training, including the CIO method.
Drooling usually begins at about 2-3 months of age. The first drooling phase lasts until the child reaches 12-15 months of age. Your child is entering the teething stage, which means that drooling will most likely increase. Remember, saliva bathes the teeth and gums, helping wash away excess food and bacteria.
More frequent night waking, trouble falling asleep at bedtime, increased fussiness, and suddenly resisting naps can all be signs your baby is having a sleep regression.
Most babies sleep longer with an earlier bedtime. Many parents are afraid to put their baby to bed so early, thinking that they will then face a 5 a.m. wake up call. But keeping your little one up too late backfires, and more often, a late night is the one followed by that early morning awakening.
While adults tend to grow sluggish when they're tired, children often become hyperactive. Whether it's a missed nap or a late bedtime, a sleepy child may seem more animated than ever. When a child doesn't get enough rest, their body responds by making more cortisol and adrenaline so they can stay awake.
Giving your child a bottle before bed, or when they wake in the middle of the night, is appropriate when they're younger. Babies need formula or breastmilk for nourishment! For example, it is common knowledge that a newborn's stomach is only the size of an egg around 10 days of age.
3 months: babies this age should be on a solid 4 nap schedule with the last nap of the day ending by 5:30pm. Bedtime should be no later than 1.5-1.75 hours after the last nap ends. Remember, this is asleep by time so we want to put baby down 15 minutes prior to this to allow him time to fall asleep.
So how do you know when it's time to stop allowing baby to fall asleep while you're holding them? “When babies start to intentionally smile at you—around 6 to 8 weeks—this is a sign that it's time to try to start having baby nap independently,” says Brown.