How much day sleep does a 3 month old need?

Hi

Just wondering how much day sleep does a 3 month old need?

Over the last two days my LO has become more and more difficult to get to sleep during the day. If you try hard enough you can get him to fall asleep in your arms but then will either wake when we transfer him to his cot or else wake a sleep cycle later (sometimes 20 sometimes 40 mintues later) and then won't resettle. I normally follow a feed with playtime and try to read for his tired signs and then try to settle. Is he not sleeping becuase he is a) not tired, b) still hungry c) ??? Mostly he is just content to lie in your arms however at times will cry a little bit and stiffen his body - I find he normally does this just before he actually drifts off to sleep.

Any ideas on what can be causing it or what I can do to change?

Am I trying to get him to go to sleep earlier than what he wants so I just need to play with him for longer? I am following the 1.5 hr/2hr max time up rule but perhaps this changes at 3 months ???

Any help, tips, advice gratefully received.

Thanks

Hi Meadsie!

You're doing a great job, it just sounds like Sam is enjoying his play and mummy time a bit more. DD has changed her day sleeps in the past week too. Sam may be going through his 12 week Wonder Week. DD fed at 3am three nights running during that wonder week -she doesn't normally feed overnight. Wonder Weeks make babies quite unsettled and it tends to affect their sleep.

Roughly 2 hours of awake time is right. According to Ngala, our parenting help centre here in Perth, a 3 month old needs 5 hours of day sleeps and 10 hours (straight or broken) overnight. Now us mums know that babies have no concept of time so don't get too hung up on this, just use it as a guide. I always aim to get DD to have one decent sleep for the day (1.5 hours to 3 hours) then I just wing it for the rest of the day as we are usually out so she will catnap here and there. I was trying too hard for lots of sleep and it was stressing me out more than anything!

As you've no doubt realised, things change all the time when it comes to your baby so work with him and his changes to his routine but keeping trying your old tricks and try a few new techniques too.

You're doing an awesome job hon!!

PS there is lots of interesting info on the Ngala site - just google it ;)