Need Advice on shifting 12 week olds bedtime

jm2168 · December 2016

My son is 12 weeks old. He has been sleeping anywhere from 5-6.5 hours at night. No matter when I put him to bed he wakes up between 3:00 and 4:00 AM. He gets tired for the night usually between 7:00-8:00 PM. If I put him down at that time he will often sleep straight to 3:00 or 4:00. I have been putting him to bed slightly later, waking him at 9:00-9:30 to feed him in the hopes he will sleep closer to 5:00-6:00 AM and it doesn't work!!

Any advice on how to shift this slightly?? I'm out of ideas!

meggyme · December 2016

Aside from the waking at 3am his sleep schedule sounds normal to me. Will he not go back down after a little while? At night I avoid turning on the lights or doing anything that might wake her up more than necessary.

My 5 month old still wakes at 3am for a feeding and again at 6 before finally waking up at 8 or 9.

jm2168 · December 2016

He eats and goes back to sleep, but sometimes he's still so tired I only get a couple ounces in him and he falls back asleep.

meggyme · December 2016

jm2168 said:

He eats and goes back to sleep, but sometimes he's still so tired I only get a couple ounces in him and he falls back asleep.

I don't think sleep training is suggested until 4 months, but if you don't think he's hungry it might be time for sleep training. Otherwise this sounds perfectly normal. Maybe give him a few minutes before going in to feed him to see if he falls back asleep or not.

SmrBrd2012 · December 2016

I agree it sounds pretty normal for a 12 week old- actually it sounds better than normal, esp if he goes back to sleep! I would either wait it out until he gets a little older and then sleep train, or maybe by then he will start sleeping longer anyway.

jm2168 · December 2016

I am not suggesting that's it not normal or that I want to "sleep train" yet. I was trying to shift his final feeding forward a bit in the hopes that he would wake up a little later. No matter when he gets his last feeding 7:30, 8:00, 9:00) he is waking at the same time, which leads me to believe that maybe he's waking up because it's a habit.

Was wondering if anyone else has had luck with shifting it forward slightly or had a similar situation.

splsmama2016 · December 2016

The fact that at 12 weeks old, you're already getting that nice stretch from 7/8 to 3/4 is great. I rarely get that with my 6 month old. Your LO's sleeping is normal. It's part of that age. Take advantage of it now before the 4 month sleep regression hits

jodiedrich18 · December 2016

No advice to give, it sounds like you've tried a few things. Honestly big changes are likely to be coming very soon with sleep patterns so it's not really much to stress about now as above poster mentioned, enjoy the relative calm right now. Plus they change so quickly that adjustments you make to try to get sleep shifted are bound to not be permanent in the next month or 2 with the sleep regression/mental leap around your corner. My LO also woke like clockwork around 2 or 3 am at around this age no matter what I did with bedtime or a dream feed. It stunk because I have to get up at 4:30 for work so some days I would just stay awake after nursing her because I wouldn't be able to get any rest in the small time left before wakeup. At 12 weeks, waking to eat is not a habit but a true need. Around 4 or 6 months depending on the baby and doctor's okay, is when most people start trying to actively not get baby to wake at night and decrease night feeds.

Need Advice on shifting 12 week olds bedtime

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