Sleeping Help for a 3 Month Old

Her night time schedule looks good for a three month old. I wish there was something we could all suggest, but waking only two times a night at that age is good.

As for the reflux - my advice is don't have her nap or sleep in her carseat. Put her in her crib or a swing with the head elevated. The car seat's angle isn't enough for reflux. Also, you could look into a reflux wedge to help in the crib - they're designed to hold the baby at the proper angle while they sleep. We liked the one from Tucker Sling.

Pediatric chiropractors can work wonders on babies with reflux. They don't do a full chiropractic workup like they'd do on an adult - it's more like massage, but tons of people say it helped with their babies reflux.

Be careful if you do decide to sleep train when she's older. Crying makes the reflux so much worse, so it may backfire because she'll be spitting up from crying. We didn't end up sleep training with my daughter who has severe reflux, and she slept through at about 7 months. Hang in there!

Has she been on the same dose for a while? My babies had reflux, and the medication wouldn't work as well when they gained weight- the pedi had to keep adjusting the dose.

Mine also slept much better in the swing for quite a while. My youngest is 3.5 now, so I don't remember how old they were when they started preferring the crib. I'd say so long as she's comfortable and happy in the swing, go with it. She'll let you know when she's not happy with that arrangement any more ;)

Best Wishes!!

If she as reflux you should try elevating her a little. My youngest slept in his swing for months and napped in an ergo, sling or swing for along time. I think her night schedule is great even if you don't give her a dream feed and she wakes at 12 and 5 that's still really good for a 3 month old baby.

My son was waking up 4-5 times a night at that age. I know it's hard but she's sleeping well for a 3 month old. BTW the expert definition of sleeping through the night is 5 hours at a stretch. I think you just need to be patient.

Some kids can sleep through by 3 months (my aunt, mother of 10, taught me that) It's all about feeding them to absolutely full capacity all day long so they sleep all night. This is challenging in babies who strictly nurse and are big and ravenous, and hard with reflux etc, but SOON if she eats enough all day, she will sleep through the night.

As for schedule, I used the Eat, Play, Sleep pattern in On Becoming Baby Wise and it was awesome. The first thing I did whenever a baby woke from a snooze was feed him/her. The let them play, then let them drift off without needing to eat, then again. Remarkably, everything fell into a cycle of every few hours, so I could always time when to do my errands and things knowing when the baby would be hungry or tired. They also had a feeding right before sleep at night too. However, at around 3 months, I had to add in extra feedings on top of the after nap ones in order to achieve enough calorie intake for the full night sleep.
Good luck!

Healthy Sleep Habits (from Weissbluth) I think, is the best book. Contrary to popular belief, it does not promote CIO. It promotes a schedule, early bedtime and notes that different training strategies will take different amounts of time.

My suggestion - based off of what I've read in that book - put her to sleep earlier. Around 7. Don't wake her for that dream feed, it'll just create a habit outside of her regular body rhythm, and stop the late nap. She's probably overtired by that point. She IS old enough to cry for naps - and that's covered in the book.

Good luck!