3 month old not sleeping through the night? awake for an hour at 3am?

Question

my lovely 3 month old is awaking at around 3am each night.. at this time I change his nappy and then feed him but then he stays awake for a good hour or so after this.. its exhausting us all.. he doesnt like drinking much during the day. he's bottle fed so I know he used to drink more -- possibly he's just too curious with his surroundings at the moment?? . he's a happy lil soul though so at least he's not grumpy.. what can I do to make my nights better.. I'm getting bushwacked.

Answer 1

Expect those late night wake up calls to go on for about another month or more. Some kids are quick at falling asleep throughout the night, but most wait until they are at least 4 mos old (or older) to fall asleep throughout the whole night.

Answer 2

It will come to a halt ...eventuallly. My son did not sleep for 5 months day and night and ALWAYS wanted to be fed and taken in the arms...colic too......absolutely exhausting. I really wonder how he could not sleep at all actually. Awake every hour during the night and only taking 2 short naps (one hour each) during the day..............
Babies are all different and the term "sleeping like a baby" certainly does not apply to some. They all have different personalities. Did not find any cure which worked..sorry !
This will come to an end.............just hang in there in the meanwhile; it is difficult to imagine I know......but one day you will have a full night sleep : I guarantee you..
By the way , it always seemed that very loud and deafening music was putting him to sleep...although I would not exactly recommend that at night or even during the day lol..
Those first months can be very difficult at first for some.
Been there...........am sorry I do not have any advice for you. Was always so ever envious hearing other mums who did not have that problem though..

PS: one good thing : lost a lot of weight out of sheer exhaustion :-))

Answer 3

Up for just 1 hour? My boy was up for 3 hours as wide awake as can be, I used to light candles hoping that starring into would put him to sleep. Now he is hyperactive as a 6 year old and on meds. My 2 year old daughter wakes up every night at 3am. But just goes to the bathroom and back to bed. its normal. Parents dont sleep through the night untill the kids move out of the house. Be for-warned.
However, one trick is to make the night bottle with powered cereal, this will fill up his stomach so he makes it through the night. Open up the nipple on the bottle some, and then mix in the cereal to the warm milk.

Answer 4

I have a 6 month old son and up until about a week ago he wouldn;t sleep through the night. I tried everything but he still woke up, the only thing that I have found to work for us is to make sure he gets a bath around the same time every night and a full belly ( baby food and bottle).

Answer 5

Ah, the dreaded "witching hour".

First, is it absolutely necessary to change his nappy? Is he soiled, or just wet? You may find if you don't wake him up so much by changing his nappy then he will go back to sleep more easily. Keep the lights low and don't talk to him to stimulate him. Keep everything very quiet, dim, soft and gentle to avoid waking him fully.

Re the feeding. Try not to worry if he is not eating quite so much at the moment. As long as he is gaining weight well and having plenty of wet and dirty nappies, (6-8 wet nappies per day, dirty ones can vary from every nappy to only one ginormous one per week or so) it may be that he has just had a growth spurt (3 months is one of the key growth spurt times) and is now having a slower growth period. He will eat as much as he needs as long as you don't restrict him. Don't force him to eat more, or he will most likely just spit up the extra.

Finally, be thankful he is only up once per night! My LO woke every 2-3 hours practically every night for his entire first year! He only slept through after he started crawling, at 14 mo (he was a late crawler).

Answer 6

what you can do is feed him as much as he wants in the daytime in every 2 or 2 and half hours. change his diapers in every 3 hours no matter he wet it or not. sometimes what you can do is take off all his clothes as well diaper and massage some lotion or if you want baby oil on his body they will feel very relax or you can try it at the nighttime but not immediately after feeding wait for half an hour after feeding and then go on for it. massage for about half an hour, put a clean diaper, clean cloth make his tummy full. rock him and when he sleeps put him in his bed. this way he will sleep long. if he awakes at 3 a.m change his diaper, feed him until he is full , burp him play with him for like 10 minutes and put him in bed. if he again cries, ignore it because its no harm if a baby cries for half and hour if they are feeded well, had a new diaper and already burped. so try these technique. I hope it helps/

Answer 7

My mother faced the same problem with me as a child, and her advise and well used method was to give the baby warm water to drink at night instead of a feeding. As he is used on waking up and being fed, so if you give him the warm water to drink, he may stop waking up as he knows he wont get fed anything but that, and its not worth the bother lol. Also he will start drinking more in the day as he isnt getting it in the night. I know it sounds weird but worked with me and its presently working for my friend and her little angel. Good luck xx

Answer 8

my son did not sleep at all, not one little bit, what so ever. when he did it was no longer than 20 min. His night time schedule went something like this. 10pm nap. 11pm awake. 12:15 am sleep. 1:30am-awake. and that's it. he's done sleeping. I did not sleep for 7 and a half months until he started staying in his bed by himself. but then, he cried constantly. If I wanted to sleep I had to hold him on my shoulders, but I couldn't lay down, I had to rock him in a rocking chair, and let me tell you- a 150 year old rocker is not that comfortable to sleep on for 8 months. as lovely as a chair it is...
you can take sleeping pills, or sneak out to your car when no one suspects, and hide in your backseat, sleep there. Otherwise nothing can be done. I tried everything. Even that. but if you sleep in your car, bring a jacket. I stopped breastfeeding because I was tired and thought my husband would help with bottle feedings, but my son would have nothing to do with him in his infancy. cry cry cry cry cry constantly. no sleep till brooklyn EVERY NIGHT FOR ALMOST A YEAR. my best advice, wait. he'll get older and learn to sleep.

Answer 9

It sounds like he has his days and nights mixed up. Try keeping him up as much as you can during the day and when you're ready to put him down for the night, give him a nice warm bath and a nice warm bottle. It's normal for a baby that young not to sleep through the night.

Answer 10

Try to leave the curtains open during the day. You say he's not drinking much during the day... well make him:) wake him up... and try to keep him awake as much as you can!:)
Make noise during the day --don't make it too easy for him to sleep well:)
This way, he'll be more enclined to sleep... at night;)
If you think something in his "surrounding" is keeping him awake (toys etc around the crib???) try to remove what would keep him awake at night ;) Good luck! sleep tight;)