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3-6 Month Baby Sleep Survival Guide

spacer Congratulations! You have officially passed the parenting Boot Camp that is life with a newborn. You are no longer that stunned slack-jawed new parent stumbling blindly through the produce isle at the grocery. Good for you!

If you haven’t already done so,  take a few minutes to check out the Newborn Baby Sleep Survival Guide. Everything there still applies to your no-longer-a-newborn baby.

While some babies are done with swaddling by the 3 month mark, others will be happily swaddled until they are 6-9 months old. You’ll want to continue to use loud white noise and work hard to make sure you aren’t keeping baby awake too long. While your baby may be taking fewer longer naps it’s also totally normal for babies to still be filling their days with frustratingly short catnaps (check out Baby Sleep What is Normal for more details on this).

Your Baby Sleep Homework

When your baby is a newborn you can guiltlessly let them sleep wherever (basinett, your lap, etc.) and put them to sleep however (nursing, swinging, butt patting, etc.). And while it’s not time to panic, you now have 2 big pieces of homework to work on over the next few months.

1

Work Towards the Crib

Unless you are into co-sleeping for the long haul, now is a great time to start working on having your baby sleep in the crib. I’m not suggesting that the second your baby turns 3 months they need to be in the crib, but I am suggesting that 3-6 months is typically the easiest time window to make this change.

2

Teach Baby to Sleep on Their Own

This is THE BIGGIE. You want to start gradually putting your baby down awake. Some babies will fight this with a fiery passion. So the process of gradually reducing the amount of nursing, rocking, and butt patting you do can be frustrating. But it’s REALLY important. Also? Failure to do so almost guarantees you will never ever sleep through the night. That’s how important it is.

Further Reading

The Ultimate Guide to Vanquishing Short Naps
Is Your Crib as Safe as you Think?
Everything you need to know to make bedtime awesome.
How and Why to Use and Loose the Paci
Weaning Baby OFF the Swing
Bedtime What Time?
Why Your Baby Hates the Crib
What to Do About Short Naps
Are You Keeping Baby Awake Too Long?
Sleeping Through the Night Part 1
Sleeping Through the Night Part 2
What You Need to Know About Sleeping Through the Night – Part 3
Is it time for Cry it Out?
What You Need to Know About Sleep Regressions
And of course the ever popular – Baby Sleep What is Normal?

{Photo credit: Lisa Stout}

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    178 Comments

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      Trish
      February 28, 2013 at 4:01 pm

      I have a couple of questions regarding our baby who is 3-1/2 months.

      1) Her naps are very inconsistent. One day we will get two 2-hour naps (one in the AM and one in the PM). The next day, using the same routine before naptime, she’ll only sleep 30 minutes at a time. Why does it vary each day and what can we do to get it consistent? I will say she either naps in the swing or on her tummy (I know..I know) but we are not consistent with which method we use. We use whatever position will keep her asleep once we lay her down.

      2) Nearly every night after we put her in her crib asleep, she wakes up 30-45 minutes later. I know this is the time she is transitioning in her sleep cycle, but what can we do to help her stay asleep? She is swaddled and we already have white noise. We do not use the swing (she hates it…even the varisty techniques). She sleeps in the nap nanny, which is in her crib. When she does wake up 30-45 minutes later, there is not one consistent thing we do to get her back asleep. Sometimes we feed her, sometimes it’s the passie, sometimes it’s rocking/ssshing. Any suggestions?

      3) As I mentioned above, she is sleeping in her nap nanny in the crib. Any suggestions on when/how to remove the nap nanny?

      Reply
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      Jen
      March 4, 2013 at 7:40 pm

      My daughter is just over 3 months old. I EBF, she takes naps in her swing, sleeps in her pack n play in our room at night, will sleep just fine in her crib for naps- although I rarely do it, and we do white noise, swaddle, paci for every sleep.
      My first concern is that she can only stay happy for 1 hour, and then we start our nap time routine. It then takes 20-30 minutes for her to fall asleep. She does just fine falling asleep on her own, I just have to tickle her face a little, give back paci, and sshh her a few times. But I feel like she should be able to stay awake longer at her age? The problem is that she only sleeps for 30 minutes! About once a day, if she naps in her swing, she will drift back to sleep, after being awake for 10-15 minutes. When she does this, she will then take a 2.5-3.5 hour nap! But it’s very unpredictable when she will do this. It’s never at the same time each day, and it’s only in the swing. How can I get her on a routine where she does this, but at the same time each day? And how can I increase the length of time of both her naps and her awake time?
      My other big issue, is that she HATES when we rock her to sleep (yet she loves her swing to rock her). This just started 3 weeks ago. She screams and flails and fights us for 15+ minutes, and then will calm down and go to sleep in our arms finally. I thought maybe she was done with swaddling, but no. Ok, so seems like an easy solution- just don’t rock her. But I need to live. Is that selfish? We can’t do anything but a quick trip to the store, because she is happily awake for such a short amount of time, sleeps for such a short amount of time, and will only sleep in her crib or swing. Getting out was so much easier when we could rock her to sleep when she was tired and we were out. Any suggestions as to how to get her to sleep in our arms or carseat?

      Reply
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      Tammy
      March 5, 2013 at 8:42 am

      Hi All and Alexis,

      I wondered whether anyone could give me a little explanation or tip on the following issue:
      I have a daughter who is 12 weeks and goes down to bed at 7pm on her own (with a little bit of help of a dummy) without much more than a stroke on her cheek into her moses basket where she sleep 12 hours with one or two night feeds. She does the same when she has her afternoon nap outside in the patio in her pram, no need for a moving pram. However, when she goes down for morning naps I need to rock her for about 15 minutes. Anyone had the same issue at all? She sleeps about 4-5 hours during the day in 3 or 4 naps.
      Thank you for your help

      Reply
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      Courtney
      March 6, 2013 at 2:33 pm

      At 9 weeks, my now 13 week old began sleeping 5-7 hours in a stretch with only 1 middle of the night feedings. His naps during the day were much shorter (30-45 minutes) but it was a trade-off I was willing to accept to get that critical nightime sleep.

      Just a few days ago, he started waking up again every 1-2 hours, like a newborn. Is this sleep regression, in which case I should “do whatever I need to do to get through it.” Or is this the beginning of object permanence, in which case I need to start to teach baby to sleep on their own?

      Many thanks for any advice.

      Reply