3 1/2 Month Old Sleeping a Max of 3 Hours at a Time

At 3.5 months she probably is actually still hungry at this time and waking up to eat is perfectly normal at her age..every baby is different!

Out of the maybe 60 babies I've had the privilege to know personally in my life, the parents of at least half reported that they did not, could not, would not consistently sleep through the night before the age of 1 1/2 or 2. A few somewhat luckier moms had babies who slept pretty reliably by 6-10 months. Babies who sleep through the night in infancy are the exception, not the rule.

There also tend to be a growth spurt between 3 and 4 months, and babies are hungrier. Most will wake more often at night needing food then, even if they had a spell of longer sleeping the previous month.

Studies show that letting babies under 6 months cry for extended periods is harmful to their well-being. They overheat, blood pressure rises, desperation and despair can lead to violent hiccups and vomiting. The cycle can intensify until the baby essentially passes out from exhaustion (at which point parents may think "Ahh, there, it worked!"). Distress crying produces the stress hormone cortisol, which can actually change the structures in the brain with repeated exposure. This can affect the growing child's emotional and physical well-being, and appears to create behavioral changes over time. Google "cortisol in children's brains" and examine recent research before you make a decision to let your baby cry it out.

Please, N., it was your decision to bring this child into the world. I'm sure you're sometimes desperately tired. And that's a normal part of parenting for most babies. Please give your little girl the physical and emotional support she needs in these important, early months.

This is completely normal. My oldest didnt sleep longer than 3 hours at a time until 5 months. I won't continue the cereal in the bottle either, your baby will not learn when she is full if you put it in there.

I know you said you were BF, how about pumping and having your hubby get up to help so you can get some sleep. My hubby and I switched off nights so we could both take turns.

A babies stomach is no larger than their fist and breast milk is quickly digested by babies as it is what they are meant to eat. At 3 1/2 months every 3 hours is perfectly normal to wake to eat. You should not give rice cereal at that age, their bodies aren't ready to digest it and it can cause long term health issues. A formula fed baby can often sleep longer because their bodies have to work harder to digest the formula so they don't feel hungry as often. Your daughter may be going through a growth spurt, thus needing more to eat as well. I know this isn't the answer you wanted to hear. I don't have a miracle way to make a baby go against nature. They do eventually sleep. I have 3 kids and except for the 1 yr old they sleep til morning now :)

And...this is totally normal 3.5 month old behavior...eat, sleep...eat, sleep...my son was the same way you describe your daughter. He was/is still not a great sleeper.

My daughter slept through the night at about 3 weeks...meaning only one night feeding. She came that way...my son came wired different...

You need to schedule a time for you to get a 6 hour stretch of sleep for yourself...my husband took our son at 6pm and I didn't feed him again after midnight. I went to bed at 6pm and could sleep until my son woke up to eat at midnight/one am...then he ate every 2 to 3 hours round the clock...I was exhausted and almost didn't have another baby. My husband used a breast milk/formula mix as my son ate so much there was rarely a time to pump.

Good luck...I am getting tired just thinking about those days...you will make it through...HUGS!!

#.5 months old is simply too young for cry it out. They cry because they have a need and the need simply won't go away if you ignore it. When they are older and they are wanting to be soothed back to sleep, that may be something you choose to do. But at this point, getting a good stretch like 3+ hours is great for a BF baby. And don't add the rice cereal! With BF babies, it actually affects their blood sugar so that they wake up hungry and their little digestive systems aren't ready for it yet! If your baby was formula fed and a couple months older I would say give it a try as it can balance out the sugars and level them out longer. She is going to sleep right away after nursing, so you should be pleased that she is doing so well. She is simply hungry and growing very rapidly and needs the calories.

Her waking to eat every couple hours is perfectly normally and developmentaly appropriate. As you've already observed, putting anything in a bottle or feeding her solid food won't change that. Unless your pediatrician has told you to give her solid food (including rice cereal), she's too young for it. Current recommendations are "around the middle of the first year" also known as six months of age.

The time of her waking to eat every 2 hours will pass, but for now, try going to bed earlier so that the distruptions are less of a problem to your sleep.

If you don't want to have her CIO, there's a book called "the no-cry sleep solution" by Pantley. It's available through the library and has lots of good ideas.

Mine woke every 1.5hrs for the 1st 8 or 9 months. Then didnt sleep thru the night until almost 2. In my group of mom friends I was considered lucky. I think every kid is different and your little one is on a normal schedule for her.

One trick I learned with my breast fed 3 month daughter is to feed her a bottle of hindmilk. lol. I pump every other feeding (alternate putting her to breast and pumped bottle) and I fill up a bottle to the point she usually drinks, then I get whatever is "left over" in a separate bottle(usually only 1-2 more oz.) ... I combine and save the "hindmilk bottles" until night time. she usually sleeps 3-5 hours... one epic night she made it 7!!! lol. the hindmilk is a lot fattier so it's able to hold her over longer.

That's pretty normal really.
if she was doing it at 9 months that would be different. but your looking at a growth spurt between 3-4 months.
Some babies need more sleep than others , my oldest NEVER SLEPT and didn't sleep through the night till she was 3 yrs old. My youngest napped well and slept through the night ( which for an infant is 5 hrs at a time), by the time he was 10 months old. Neither one was raised different than the other. Neither one was left to cry it out.

Peg really nailed it on the head. I can't put it any better than she did.

This is entirely normal and natural for her age. THere is a wide range of normal. It is unnatural to let her scream herself into submission. Keep doing what you are doing, and she will sleep longer stretches. But I believe most doctors advise not to put the rice cereal into bottles.

I don't have time to get into the details, but it harms babies emotional development to let them cry without comforting them, and there is plenty of science and studies to back that up (whereas there are only anecdotes that letting babies cry is OK). There are great books that explain it; The Science of Parenting, and Baby Hearts. Also Bright From the Start.

Sorry it is tough. I completely understand, my son woke 4 times a night for his first year, I can't believe I didn't get fired from my job I was so strung out. Sounds like you are on a good path and she will settle soon.

Best wishes!

I started giving my DD water instead of formula at night but that ____@____.com't do this unless you talk to your ped. She sounds like a normal baby. Count your blessing with the first baby that he/she was a great sleeper.
my DH didn't help w/feeding during the week but if he was off on the weekends (rarely) he would do the 6am feeding and I could get more sleep in a row. He wouldn't get up in the middle of the night EVER, but would wake at a normal time 5:30 to "help."
p.s. Do NOT put anything in the bottle including cereal unless your ped says it's ok. I kept getting that advise and asked my ped and he said that the whole point of cereal is to get used to a spoon. I can't remember what "bad thing" happens when you put something in the bottle but there was something. Call the nurses at your peds office.

She may be hungry once during the night, but if she is eating every 3 hours she is more than likely doing it for comfort rather than hunger. I would not put cereal in her bottle, she will start taking it by spoon in about a month so I would leave it till than. Mostly babies wake at night to eat because we train them too do so. I would start helping her learn to comfort in other ways. If you use CIO, I would do a modified version. I would wait 5 minutes before going in to comfort. Most of the time that 5 was long enough for them to sooth themselves. If it was not, I would go in after 5 and calm without food, but by rubbing and singing or talking softly. Be consistent and she will learn to be a great sleeper.

Sorry to tell you but the first one sleeping so well was probably the more abnormal sleeper...especially for being breastfed. My daughter (and myself according to my mom) never slept more than 2-3 hours at a time. In fact my daughter only slept over 4 hours 1 time until she stopped breastfeeding at a year old. It is very tiring as you know but still worth it in the long run compared to formula.
Try to get some sleep when you can, maybe try pumping so husband can take a turn at beginning or end of the night. Good Luck!!!

She is too young to cry it out she has no self soothing skills and wont until she is at least 6 months. You must have been lucky with your first kid because babies are supposed to wake every 2-3 hours to nurse and Ger the nutrition that their growing bodies and brains need.

Please don't try CIO yet. I am a firm believer in it, and did it with our 2nd child and it worked beautifully.... but not until around 6 months!! NOT at 3 1/2 months. Eating every 3 hours is really fairly average at her age.

There are a lot of folks who will say not to pay any attention to Babywise and otherwise slam it. But I used the principles regarding the ORDER of things with our babies. (Instead of feeding, sleep, awake, feeding, sleep, awake; you switch it around to feeding, awake, sleep, feeding, awake, sleep). JUST by following that routine, my babies stretched the time between feedings (on their own... I never let them cry when they were hungry). Then, when they get that order of the routine down, at bedtime for the night... you don't keep them awake at the end of the feeding. Voila. They sleep longer and more soundly. My eldest slept "through the night" (meaning more than 5 hours at a stretch) at about 13 weeks. My youngest accomplished this (she went 7 hours) at about 7 weeks. BUT, that isn't the case with every baby. And even during the day, they still fed at LEAST every 3 hours. Don't look for daytime feedings to stretch out to closer to 4 hours until another month or so goes by.

No rice cereal either. She doesn't need it. Cereal is just for them to practice their eating skills on anyway... not much in the way of nutrition when you DO start feeding solids.

What helped with our third baby was a white noise machine. It drowns out her rambunctious brothers when she needs a nap or goes to bed first. Perhaps one for the 3yo's room would help, too! Best of luck! This too shall pass. My baby zoomed from 3 months to age 2 somehow! Unauthorized growth, I tell you!

Please don't let her cry! At her age, getting up every 2 hours is perfectly normal. Just do the best you can to cope with the sleep-deprivation, but know that it might be a very long time before she sleeps through the night. It is not your fault, or hers, its just the way it happens sometimes. I have a theory that really seems to play out with everyone I know...it is that nobody ever gets two good or two bad sleepers in a row, they always alternate. So don't expect your new baby to be similar to the last one. Just love her as she is :-)

My son just started sleeping through the night around 19 months, he will be 2 in 3 weeks. He woke up every few hours to eat as well, I think all kids are different. One suggestion is to have her sleep with you, then you can nurse her while you sleep. I found that really helped me. I would also not give her rice cereal because she is not able to digest it.

My 3 1/2 month old sleeps for 10-14 hours at night and he's breastfed. I think it's because he won't nap during the day and I'll nurse him often trying to get him to sleep. It doesn't work for nap time but he more than makes up for it at night. Maybe you can try feeding her more often during the day and make sure she doesn't take long naps. Good luck and congratulations!!

That's just what 3 1/2 month olds do! If it's a new thing, then it's probably a growth spurt, but most kids don't "sleep through the night" (i.e. 5 hours at a time) before 4 months... Around 5 or 6 months sleeping patterns get a little better for most, though there are still those kids who don't sleep through the night for a very long time. For instance, my first started sleeping 5 hours a night from a young age and at 6 months was sleeping 11 hours through the night, but then at 6 1/2 months, he started waking up, first once a night, then twice, then when it got to four times (and he was extremely difficult to get back to sleep from the get-go), I ended up just throwing him into bed with me and my husband ended up sleeping in the guest room until our son was 17 months. His sleeping through the night coincided with the day his molars came through fully. And to this day he doesn't sleep as well as his one-year-old twin brothers who (thank god!) sleep 12 and a half hours at night, then two in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. They were opposite in that they didn't sleep through the night (12 hours) until they were 6 months old.
Sleeping longer, by the way, has nothing to do with eating solids or eating more or whatever, so I wouldn't try rice in the bottle as this could even contribute to her not sleeping well! If her tummy isn't ready for solids (most doctors recommend starting between 4 and 6 months depending on your baby's readiness) then she might be uncomfortable and unable to sleep.
As for crying it out, I'm of the school that 3 and a half months is too young, but that's up to you. There are lots of books, though, that offer sleep suggestions. Talk to your friends to see which one they recommend. Unfortunately none worked for our first son and our twins slept so well we didn't really need sleep books, so I can't help you there. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby is one that most people read, though I think that when the author says teething doesn't cause wakefulness he's full of you know what! :-) Anyway, see if it subsides in the next few days and if so, it's probably a growth spurt. Talk to your doctor about when to give up a night feeding, but if her weight is good, I'd say around 5 months is fine to start offering her water instead of formula or breast milk.
Hope you get some sleep soon!

Try cluster feeding during the day. Feed more often than needed during the day so that she won't need as many calories at night.