[dayxday]

Anyone got one? My son is almost three months and I haven't tried to regulate his schedule at all. Generally, he goes to bed for the night around 9:30pm and sleeps for 3-4 hour stretches until 8am. I've never really put him down for a nap. I just let him nod off while we're out for a long walk, etc. At that time, he's out for a couple hours at a time. But here's the thing. I'm a writer and I'd like to start thinking about a more regular writing schedule (since I'm getting damn bored of scheduling my day around Oprah...my playtime is over!)

Any tips on "training" a three-month old to nap at specific times of day? And are certain times better than others?

 

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

This is NOT what you are going to want to hear.....................

Do not try to get a 3 month old baby on a schedule, you will just end up frustrated and miserable, so will your child. it will provoke you to start using CIO, and you will NEVER get support for that here. I work full time. Granted DS is in daycare during the day (he is 4 months), I still care for him all night and all morning. He has his own schedule, and I do not try to get him to cater to ME. Its quite the opposite, as I cater to him 120%. I understand that you want some time to do your thing, as we all do, but as mothers, there are scrafices we HAVE to make. If you can wait about 6 more months or so, he should have his days and nights pretty rounded out by then, taking a couple naps during the day, and sleeping relativly well at night. DS1 did this, and we did not force it on him, and neither did daycare. At that young an age, you go with childs cues. Children are much better at figuring these types of things out then they are given credit for. But we have to be patient and wait for them.

That being said, enjoy the time you have with your LO. I wish I could stay home, but alas, it was not in the cards.

 

[dayxday]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barbie64g This is NOT what you are going to want to hear..................... Do not try to get a 3 month old baby on a schedule, you will just end up frustrated and miserable, so will your child. it will provoke you to start using CIO, and you will NEVER get support for that here. I work full time. Granted DS is in daycare during the day (he is 4 months), I still care for him all night and all morning. He has his own schedule, and I do not try to get him to cater to ME. Its quite the opposite, as I cater to him 120%. I understand that you want some time to do your thing, as we all do, but as mothers, there are scrafices we HAVE to make. If you can wait about 6 more months or so, he should have his days and nights pretty rounded out by then, taking a couple naps during the day, and sleeping relativly well at night. DS1 did this, and we did not force it on him, and neither did daycare. At that young an age, you go with childs cues. Children are much better at figuring these types of things out then they are given credit for. But we have to be patient and wait for them. That being said, enjoy the time you have with your LO. I wish I could stay home, but alas, it was not in the cards.

Trust me, I care for him 120% as well and I would never dream of letting him CIO. And I understand sacrifice, and don't even consider motherhood to be that much of a sacrifice per se, but more of a rewarding and new adventure.

There are just times that he seems really tired and I had a eureka moment of, "should I be putting him down for naps?" That's really what my question was about and how to combine that with my home-work schedule.

For mothers that do this, are there times of day that work for you? At what age did you start putting your babies down for naps? Or should I just not worry about it at this time?

 

[veeeyloova]

hey mama, i had my lo on a 'routine' as opposed to a schedule. In my mind a schedule sets up unrealistic expectation and can create inflexibility. Whereas a 'routine' lowers expectation and allows for flexibility. It helped a lot. I based the routine on what cues he displayed. His routine began when he was 8 weeks and was a three hour one, with eating following sleep and activity following eating. ie: up for the morning, eat, play, nap, eat, play, nap, eat, etc...). The time of the activity didn't matter, but I did observe length of time . I didn't care at what time he played, but noticed that after an hour of activity (including diaper changes, etc) he would start showing signs of tiring, which would cue the nap. His routine helped because I learned a lot about his needs and how to curb upset. For example, before the routine, I didn't pay attention to naps either, now I know that if he doesn't get at least 4 hours total of naps in a day, getting him to sleep at night takes longer because he gets overtired and fussy. As he gets older, the length of activity increases as he can tolerate more.
Be realistic. 12 weeks is still young, but it is possible to observe LO's needs and create a day that gives him/her what is needed without being harsh. It may take awhile to get the hang of reading LO's cues, and it might need constant adjustment. For example, this whole post is in past tense because LO got sick and I needed to start letting him nurse as he needed to soothe him, which threw the previously established routine out the window. Now he's better but got to nursing himself to sleep, so I'm letting him until he's ready to stop again. The routine is changing because he changed, but I know that he still needs a certain amount of nap time to be healthy, so I'm focusing on making sure he gets that while we figure out the rest.
Start with observation, and what he needs will make itself known! Good luck!

 

[veeeyloova]

also, 9:30 is a REALLY late bedtime for 12 weeks old! My LO, who is also 12 weeks, goes to bed between 7:30 and 8. I discovered that keeping him up wo late was making putting him down for a nap harder because he was chronically overtired.

 

[sgmom]

I never set a schedule until my girl was about 5 months old. She would fall asleep quite late (around 11 - when we went to bed), and wake up at 9 or 9:30, often sleeping right through the night. She was never big on naps either, but she never seemed to need them (always happy, never cranky, etc). I just went with her schedule until she got a little older. Once I started putting her down earlier (first about 9:30, then 8:00), but she started waking up more and more throughout the night. Now she'll sleep from about 8pm to 7am (if we co-sleep - we've had some sleep problems in the last 2 weeks)

We now have a more stable schedule, but if she's not tired during the day, I won't force her to nap (I refuse to do CIO). My only advice would be to go with your babys schedule. If you think you can successfully put him down, then do. You'll likely quickly learn that he gets tired around the same times of the day, and then you can build your nap schedule around this (even if it means changing his nighttime sleep schedule to earlier or later to coincide with Oprah

: ).

 

[rachel7628]

At that age, the only guideline I followed was to not keep her up for longer than 2 hours at any time. If I remember correctly, she'd start to show signs of being tired after about 90 minutes. I also tried to make sure each nap lasted at least 45 minutes (usually by holding her for all or part of it) - she was the queen of cat naps, but would be cranky 10 minutes later because she was still tired. I think some babies will establish their own sleep routines when very young, but not all of them. Mine didn't start following a routine until she was about 6 months old when she consistently started needing only 2 naps each day.

 

[Burnindinner]

I think it was during the month between 3 and 4 months that he sort of started to regulate himself. He would take an hour morning nap about an hour or two after he woke up, then about a 2 hour afternoon nap. He went to bed around 7 pm and got up between 7 and 8 am. We started doing a simple routine - rocking, read a book or a few, nurse, down for a nap. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Then of course he hit the 4 month sleep regression and refused to nap if he could help it, so it all went out the window!

Then he got all weird about sleep right before he started rolling regularly. Today is the first day he did anything close to that schedule from before! I'd love to have it back.

 

[LadyCatherine185]

we never used a schedule/routine but DS made his own. Around 5-6 months he started regulating his own 'schedule'- taking a morning nap around 8-9 AM lasting an hour, and an afternoon nap around 1 PM lasting 2-3 hours (45 minutes at atime, with a quick nurse back to sleep). it is always best to follow baby's cues.

 

[munchymum]

Yep, follow baby's cues for sleep times and find ways to get baby to sleep without you having to go for a long walk (we used to take her a walk in her pram). Nursing or rocking to sleep in a sling worked for us too. Around 12 weeks I became obsessed with being at home when she was asleep as 'me' time was such a novelty! And don't stress if she sleeps more one day than another, or sleeps 2 hours one morning and only 30 minutes the next. And I don't think 9.30 is too late a bedtime - surely it depends on what time they got up? Just go with what your baby wants to do! Good luck.

 

[tjjazzy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dayxday Anyone got one? My son is almost three months and I haven't tried to regulate his schedule at all. Generally, he goes to bed for the night around 9:30pm and sleeps for 3-4 hour stretches until 8am. I've never really put him down for a nap. I just let him nod off while we're out for a long walk, etc. At that time, he's out for a couple hours at a time. But here's the thing. I'm a writer and I'd like to start thinking about a more regular writing schedule (since I'm getting damn bored of scheduling my day around Oprah...my playtime is over!) Any tips on "training" a three-month old to nap at specific times of day? And are certain times better than others?

my son is 6 months old and doesn't have a schedule that good!! i'd count my blessings if he did. babies that age tend to make their own schedules.
my older son is in a preschool program and on tuesdays and thursdays, my younger son and i go to the local restaurant my mom works at. the little guy falls asleep in the buggy and i get time to myself. if i still had my laptop, i could do some writing while there but alas, i don't. have you thought of doing something like that? i plan to sit up on the main street of our town and let him watch the world go by when the weather gets nice and balmy; that should keep him busy while i relax or read.

 

[tjjazzy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barbie64g He has his own schedule, and I do not try to get him to cater to ME.

OP...BUT you can cater to his natural schedule. make sure you follow whatever schedule he seems to have (he will change it from time to time) and you'll at least have a predictable routine you can both rely on. my 1st son responded so well to a routine like this that he still (he's 3 years and 4 months) naps every day from 2 or 3 p.m.until 5 or 6 p.m (when he was younger, it was noon til 2 or 3 but he changed it) and is back in bed from 8:30 p.m. until between 7:30-8:30 a.m. UNLESS he has preschool. then he usually goes to bed earlier the night before and their naptime is earlier there. i just always made sure to follow his schedule as religiously as i could. i hope my younger son will get on some sort of better routine soon--he's exhausting me! HTH.