3 month old fights sleep

I have a 3 month old baby who fights going to sleep during the day and bedtime. I am wondering if anyone else has this problem. She is able to put herself to sleep for the night feeding but for some reason does not want to go to sleep during the day.
The only way she will sleep is if i use a dummy or she uses me as a dummy or i have to walk around with her for ages to wear her out. Please help !

Hey Mish
I have the exact same problem with my 9wk old baby girl. She too will put herself back to sleep if she wakes up properly during the night after a feed. But during the day I too have to walk around with her, and she wont take a dummy, she prefers to use the breast as a dummy to put herself to sleep. Every day is different I just cant get into a routine with her, somedays she will sleep for 2hrs straight and others only 20mins ! The only thing I do is cuddle her to sleep on my chest and then put her down and cross my fingers smile sorry I cant be of much help. But hopefully its just a stage they are going through and with time it will get easier.

Hi Kazzie,

Thanks for your reply. I too hope it is just a phase they are going through. I used to be able to cuddle her to sleep on my chest like you were saying but now she screams when i do that cause she knows she is going to sleep so i have to turn her the other way and that takes ages for her to fall asleep ! I'm the same with the routine part as well - it always changes and I can't get into a routine. I am trying to at least set a bedtime for her - we'll see how it goes. I guess we should be thankful that they are good night sleepers. Also she refused the dummy this morning to put her to sleep - seems like our babies are very similiar !

My now 22mth old daughter was also similar, but it was day and night!
My suggestion is to start a pattern for bed time! I have always done a feed,10min quiet time, clean teeth (day and night) a dummy and bed! I also have to give her something to keep her laying down and quiet like a dummy cover or an egg ring to look at. She now says teeth ( to have her teeth cleaned) when she is ready for bed.
This is what worked for us,
Hope it might help!

My little girl who's 3mths sleeps for about 3 hours in total during the day at a max of 30 mins at a time. I can understand the frustration you are all going through. At the moment I am putting her in her bouncer facing a blank wall and I just rock her until she goes asleep. After she wakes from being in her bouncer I put her into the cot where she will sleep for another 10 mins. I also used to cuddle her to sleep but I have learnt that this doesn't work well when its time for cot. During the night I am getting between 4-8 hours sleep from 9pm onwards.

Hi this is to everyone,
I come from Brisbane & I don't know what sort of government help you have but ours is excellent. We have Child Health Clinics that we can go to however often we want. If their advice doesn't help the offer day stays where they help you work through the problems. If this doesn't help we have another service that you can go to for a week. All the meals etc are provided & it's all free. You sleepover for the week & they see what your routine is & help get the baby into a pattern & teach you what to do. I've heard this service is fantastic but have not used it myself as thankfully my little boy has been very good, but everyone tells me that will change.
Hope this helps in some way.

I'm sure it is something that they all go through.

Our baby is 4 1/2 months old now. She started doing the same thing around the 3 month mark.

During the day she usually has three 1/2 hour sleeps. I have learnt not to get stressed about it as I know she does sleep for longer periods when she is really tired.

To try and wear her out I alternate her from her rocker and play mat.

Most times during the day she will fight going to sleep no matter how tired I think she is. So what I have found works for us is:

I cradle her in my arms (with her chest facing into me), dummy (occasionally), I stand & rock her and either sing or hum. This seems to relax her and she eventually drifts off after 10mins or so (sometimes a bit longer). She does fight and I just persist if I think she needs the rest.

It was so easy at first to put her to sleep at night. But we found that around 8.00pm she would cry and scream for about an hour. There was nothing either my husband or I could do to make her happy.

We decided to try putting her to sleep a bit earlier. So we first give her a bath (usually with dad - as he is fun, mum is food!!!!), I then feed her and make sure that she feeds well on both sides, as soon as she is burped, I cradle her (facing into me again), put the dummy in her mouth and rock her to sleep. The whole process takes about 1/2hr to an 1hr, but she likes the routine. She is now sleeping for 5 hours at this time and wakes once during the night.

Unfortunately, just when you think you know what their routine is they go and change it on you.

Hope this helps.

i am having the same problem! This is my first baby so i'm new at everything. But with my little one i've noticed that he only ever puts himself to sleeep if he's really tired. Otherwise i have to rock him quite hard and fast (not rock him dangerously!) How do i get him out of the rocking stage???

My first son Joshua always fought sleeping it was very difficult to get any time for me to do things - i learnt you had to feed them burp them change bum and know there was nothing wrong with them then put them in their cot - if they cry leave them and let them for 10 minutes although may seem cruel it is something mid-wifes and brochures recommend if the crying is upsetting you then walk out the house for 10minutes or turn up the tv or radio. I have recently had my 2nd baby and he is very much like the first, doesn't like to sleep and when he does its a catnap - he never seems to sleep deeply he can always sense when someone is around or if he hears you walking in the house will wake. We have to remember that in the womb the baby is most active of a night time, during the day they sleep and for the first 3 months it's a case of demand feeding and they are also trying to work out how to use their insides still. At age 3 months is the best time to put them into routine. a routine suitable to both baby and mum.

In saying all that i know it's hard to do because i can't stand it when my baby crys but sometimes it has to be done. ONLY if you know nothing is wrong with baby should you let cry.

Hi,
I don't know if you will see this, as it is a while since you posted your message. However, I had the same problem and had an expert come to my house and teach me how to get my baby to sleep during the day (and night) perfectly. It has worked a treat. Here's the rules:
-only feed every 3 - 4 hours (never under)
-wake them up if they sleep when a feed is due (4.5 hours is OK, somethines I even let my baby go 5 hours during the day, but absolutely no more)
-after 1.5 - 2 hours awake after a feed, wrap, and put to bed
-leave the room
-let them cry for 10 minutes (half the time my baby falls asleep during that time, as she is tired anyway)
-if not asleep after 10 minutes, go into room and pacify (dummy, rock etc) leave the room
-wait another 10 minutes
-if still not asleep, repeat exercise
This has worked for me very well, but make sure your baby is tired, but not overtired. They get very used to this routine and end up enjoying it.
My baby now sleeps from 7pm until 6/7am , with a feed at 11pm (which she is barely awake for). She also has 2 - 3 day sleeps of between 1 hour and 3 hours each. It's not perfect every day, and I can't guarantee which sleep will be 1 hour and which will be 3 hours, but at least I can get things done.
Good luck. I hope you're having better luck now.

Suef
Id love to chat to you about your techniqe it sounds like you could be very helpful.
Althogh still very young 23 days bub really fights sleep.
He feeds quite regulary every 2 hours have i made a rod for my own back or do you think this techniqe would help i can only try hey
Thanks again youve been more than helpful well start tomorrow.
Megs Aamkelleher@aol.com

Hi everyone,

My baby was like this too until I bought a saviour of a book that was recommended "The New contented little baby book" by Gina Ford. It otlines routines that are age appropriate and was a saviour we are still working with it and have made some changes to it according to her needs. She was cat napping and sleeping 4 hrs during the day and quite unpredictable. She would possit alot too with some reflux. We coudln't leave her to play on her own for more than 10 min at a time. Two weeks later my baby with serious colic has now settled and sleeps atleast 5 hrs in a row in the night from 11:30pm she has 3 naps in the day and I now have some time to myself. Goodluck to all of you...