How Do I Get My Breastfed Baby to Sleep Longer During the Day?
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It sounds like your baby is doing great with nighttime sleep. Well done getting her on a great schedule! Let's review your full question first:
My little one is 3 months old and exclusively breastfeed. We are having short naps during day 20-30mins tops 3-4x a day. We do bedtime at 7-730 and she’ll wake after 30 mins crying then take about 20-30mins to resettle on her own before falling asleep at night. Typically sleeps til 650-715am. Feed schedule is every 2-2.5, how can i get her to sleep longer during day? She will not fall asleep on own without crying for a period of time, falls asleep instantly in arms. Any advice? Thanks!
Interrupted naps can have many causes, so we'll try to narrow it down and see if we can come up with a solution. I want to start with a few questions to try to get to the answer of your question:
- How have her naps been up to this point?
- What does a typical day's schedule look like?
- Has she been swaddled before or up to this point?
- When she falls asleep in your arms, can you put her down and then she naps longer?
3 months is a landmark growth spurt time as well, so it's possible she's needing more calories to get through that. If that's the case, there's a chance she's waking because she's hungry. But growth spurts only last a few days and then she should go right back to her usual schedule, assuming she was napping longer before.
After you answer these questions, we can dig deeper to find a solution for you. In the meantime, read this article on how to breastfeed with the Babywise method. Thanks for reaching out!
