Sleeping FAQ: 3-4 Months – Lunchtime Nap

My three month daughter wakes after an hour at lunchtime and sometimes after going down at 7pm. What should I do?

My daughter is waking approximately one hour after going down for her lunchtime nap. She also sometimes wakes after going down at 7pm. She screams for about 20-40 minutes before going back down to sleep. She will sometimes fully sleep but sometimes it is just fretful catnaps. I would like to get her past this as I am sure that it is affecting her quality as well as quantity of sleep.

She is generally a very contented baby, eating well and sleeping most nights through from 10.30pm. She is happy, interested and loving. I don’t want her to come off the routines as it the best thing for us both.

My daughter is formula fed 8ozs at 7.10am, 11am, 6.15pm and 10.15pm. She takes 6ozs at 2.30pm. She weighs 15.13 ozs.

She naps at 9.15- 9.5am, 11.45-2pm and 4.30-5pm.

Check through all the things stated in the article about the Lunchtime Nap on the website. At three months a baby will be developing more adult sleep cycles. Your daughter may come into a light sleep and jerk herself awake with the Moro reflex if she is not tucked in firmly with a lightweight blanket or cotton sheet over her sleeping bag. Secure this down the sides of the cot with rolled towels. If there is a chink or shaft of light in her room, or it is not fully blacked out, she may wake after an hour.

To eliminate the possibility of hunger waking your daughter, offer her a top up feed of 1-2ozs before she goes down for her lunchtime nap. It may help if you gave your daughter her 11am feed at 10.45am so she is more willing to take a top up at 11.45am.

Your daughter is learning how to settle herself back to sleep after this waking but it may take her a few weeks to do so with less crying. Providing you have eliminated all the other reasons for her waking, give her 15-20minutes to see if she will settle herself. After that time go into her room to check and reassure her but try to do this without taking her from her cot. Tuck her in again, give her a reassuring stroke and leave the room to see if she will settle herself back to sleep.

To help her settle and sleep better in the evenings try splitting her bedtime feed so, overall, she takes slightly more milk. Give her 4ozs at 5.40pm, bath her around 6.15pm and then offer her a further 4-5ozs before settling her down for the night.

If you are aware of your daughter being very tired at 7pm, then consider bringing her bedtime forward by 15 minutes so she is settled by 6.45pm. This may help her have a short spell of babbling to herself before falling asleep, which will mean she will not be fighting sleep through overtiredness.