Three-Month-Old Infant’s Sleep Schedule and Ways to Enhance It

To the new moms and dads, getting your little tot to sleep could be hard since they tend to wake up very often especially in the first couple of months. This may be all right in the first few days since new parents seem so eager to play with their baby, but as reality kicks in, sleepless nights brought about by your child’s frequent awakenings could break apart your sleeping schedule and cause havoc on your time management. You simply could not impose any sleeping schedule for babies this young so you need to cope with it and sacrifice your own.

At three months old, the baby will begin to develop a sleep-wake cycle that could be more favorable to you. At this age, the baby tends to sleep for 15 hours every day and about 10 hours of those is spent during the night. This could be a welcome change for both parents since they can sleep considerably longer. But then again, do not have high hopes yet as each baby has different ways of adapting to these changes. This “sleep longer” notion would only be as long as five hours. You still need to feed them and perhaps change diapers at night, but at least at this time their tummy can contain a considerable amount of milk so that you do not need to feed them as often as you used to at night.

This could be the right time to start developing a good sleeping habit for your baby. You have to remember, though, that he is still too young at this point to follow a strict routine. You’ll just end up putting more stress on him rather than helping your little child have a better sleep. Generally, at this age your baby will dictate the tempo on when he wants to sleep. You can, however, be watchful enough to see signs of him or her being sleepy. Most parents tend to overlook this as they enjoy playing with them and might forget about nap times. Always remember that how active your baby is during the daytime will translate into how well he will sleep at night.

So how do you develop and instill good sleeping habits for your baby? Consider the following tips:

●      Set bedtimes and nap times – At this young age, you can start developing bedtimes and nap times and try to stick to it as much as possible. You do not have to wait and see signs that he is sleepy like rubbing his eyes, pulling his ears, yawning, and others because even an overly active child may also be sleepy but are not showing signs of it. The good time to put them to sleep is around 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Being overly tired will not help your cause because, contrary to common beliefs, when a child is very tired, he will sleep like a snake are actually false. An overly tired child could have a hard time falling asleep.

●      Bedtime routines – At this early age, it is good to develop a good bedtime routine so that your child will learn to begin looking forward to it every night. When he does feel that the routine is starting, his body will adapt to it and establish sleepiness. Your routine could include; playing quietly with him, a warm bath time, applying mild lotions, dressing up for bed, bedtime stories, singing a lullaby, and closing everything up with warm hugs and kisses.

●      Wake your baby up – Do not be afraid to wake your baby up if he oversleeps especially in the morning. This will help set his body clock and he will tend to follow this in the long run.

There might be instances that your baby will not follow his routines. Don’t despair as your child is still adapting to these changes. Just give support and do not strictly implement these routines in order to let the baby develop at his own pace. These ideas and a lot more you can do to help your baby sleep well through the night and, at the same time, give you that long sleep that you deserve.