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As Baby Approaches 3 months..

As Baby approaches 3 months, you may begin to notice a sudden shift in her sleeping habits. This is often known as the four-month sleep regression. Maybe until now you could do things like:

• Transfer her from the car without interrupting her sleep.
• Make lots of noise around her while she’s sleeping without interrupting her nap.
• Nurse Baby to sleep and then lay her down for a nice, long nap in the crib.

While this is all part of the beauty of those sweet newborn days, you may begin to notice that suddenly change. Now, you can no longer transfer Baby out of the car so easily without waking her up. She may wake up once you lay her down after she falls asleep nursing or feeding. And simple noises in the home may begin to startle her awake more easily. This can lead to interrupted naps and an overtired baby who wakes more in the night and earlier each day.

Let’s take a look at why this happens.

What causes the four-month sleep regression?

Did you know that your baby’s sleep patterns change around months 3 and 4 due to developmental changes? It’s true. In the newborn stage, sleep is simple. Newborns have just two types of sleep (quiet sleep and active sleep) without any stages in the quiet sleep category:

• Active sleep (light, wiggly, noisy)
• Quiet sleep (deeper and still)

Around 3–4 months, your baby’s sleep begins to change and become more like adult sleep. Instead of the simple newborn pattern, sleep now moves through different stages, from light to deep and back again, in cycles that last about 45–60 minutes. As a result, your baby spends more time in lighter stages of sleep, especially at the beginning and end of each cycle and in the early morning hours. During these lighter stages, it’s easier for your baby to become fully awakened. In the lighter stages, the brain is more alert to environmental changes, like sudden noise or more light.

So, the four-month regression is not a regression at all, but a progression of sleep development. Yet it can be frustrating if you don’t have the right tools to help Baby adjust to these new sleep cycles and build a strong sleep foundation.

What can you do to help baby sleep?

Now, around 3-4 months, is when routines and schedules begin to matter a little more. Of course, every baby is different. There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to babies and sleep. But there are simple ways to help Baby learn what to expect in a typical day and to cue sleep. Routine can help establish her circadian rhythm and contribute to smooth transitions between feeding, wake time, and rest. There are also ways to set up the sleep environment for optimal sleep and be mindful of sleep pressure.

8 ways to set up sleep:

1. Establish a routine– your baby will begin to set an internal clock based on her typical day.
2. Aim to feed Baby every 2.5-3.5 hours during the day to prevent snacking and ensure she gets enough calories in her day.
3. Set up the sleeping environment to encourage great naps and longer nighttime sleep. A quiet, dark space, along with a sound machine, can help block out other household noises.
4. Keep wake windows in mind to ensure that Baby gets her “tired tank” filled without becoming overtired.
5. Offer naps at the appropriate time. Baby needs the right amount of daytime sleep to rest during the day, while still building sufficient sleep pressure for longer nighttime sleep.
6. Practice laying Baby down awake in her normal sleeping environment. The biggest contributor to a baby sleeping through the night at this stage is her ability to fall asleep independently.
7. Work toward longer night sleep. There are tips offered in my Baby Sleep Guide below to help your baby get longer stretches of sleep at night.
8. A dream feed can help you coordinate the longest stretch of sleep with Mama’s nighttime sleep.

Each of these 8 tips is elaborated on in my Baby Sleep Guide for Months 3 and 4, mentioned below.

As you gently establish rhythms in your home, your baby will gradually adapt to those rhythms. She will naturally set her internal clock to align with the smooth schedule and routine of a typical day. Your baby will likely begin to wake naturally around the same time each day, fill her little tummy, spend awake time exploring her environment for her age-appropriate wake window, and then drift off to sleep for her next nap, preparing to start the cycle all over again in a couple of hours. She will also begin to recognize when it is time for her longest stretch of sleep through the night. And then, Mama, you get to rest too.

Why do i need to lay baby down awake?

As your baby grows and develops, she will become much more aware of where and how she sleeps. She will begin to expect to fall asleep in the way she is most often helped to sleep. Now that she is potentially waking up at the end of each sleep cycle, she will begin learning how to connect these sleep cycles and fall back to sleep. If she is put to sleep in Mama’s arms, and then wakes up in her crib, this may make it harder for her to fall right back to sleep. If she is used to being fed to sleep, she may want the same input to fall back into deeper sleep at each sleep cycle. This ends up being the baby that may continue to wake and eat throughout the night in the first two years of life.

On the other hand, a baby who is given the opportunity to fall asleep independently will learn to fall back asleep the same way.

If your baby isn’t sleeping longer stretches of sleep at night, don’t worry. The guide below will teach you how to set your baby up for success and give her the precious gift of sleep.

Baby Sleep Guide for months 3 and four.

I have created a Baby Sleep Guide for Months 3 and 4 to help you and other mamas guide your baby into great sleep using a gentle approach called the R.E.S.T.W.E.L.L. Framework. In this framework, we discuss eight ways to build a solid sleep foundation for your baby, to create a restful, peaceful home for your family to thrive.

• R: Routine
• E: Eating schedule
• S: Setting up the environment
• T: Trying the dream feed
• W: Wake windows
• E: Encouraging great naps
• L: Lay Baby down awake
• L: Longer night sleep

In this guide, we dive deeper into each of these strategies to help your baby navigate different sleep obstacles and help you continue getting restful nights.

In case you missed my newborn sleep guide