Eat/Play/Sleep Schedule -- Still OK for a 3 mo old?

Our twins are 3 mo today . We've been doing the eat/play/sleep routine with some success. My question is how long do they do this (and when do they transition to longer naps).

And we've been keeping them up between their last two feedings (playing, giving a bath, etc.) but the past few nights they've been really hard to get to sleep. I'm wondering if keeping them up for 2ish hrs is making them overtired. Any ideas?

 

My girls are almost 3.5 months adjusted, and we do eat/play/sleep. Towards the end of the day, they can't stay up between the last 2 feedings, so at times I put them down for a catnap (which they take or scream through), but the best success I've had is to go for a walk around 6pm...sometimes they doze off for a bit, but if anything, they calm down. When we get home, they are usually calm enough so we can give them baths (and they enjoy it), then the bottle, and to bed. They rarely have trouble falling asleep. I have also noticed the better they nap during the day, the easier and better they fall asleep at night. Mine can rarely stay up more than 1.5 hours, so it's just impossible to have them up from 4pm-7pm...unless I want constant screaming babies.

 

QUOTE(anicakes @ Sep 18 2008, 11:01 AM) [snapback]985839[/snapback]
My girls are almost 3.5 months adjusted, and we do eat/play/sleep. Towards the end of the day, they can't stay up between the last 2 feedings, so at times I put them down for a catnap (which they take or scream through), but the best success I've had is to go for a walk around 6pm...sometimes they doze off for a bit, but if anything, they calm down. When we get home, they are usually calm enough so we can give them baths (and they enjoy it), then the bottle, and to bed. They rarely have trouble falling asleep. I have also noticed the better they nap during the day, the easier and better they fall asleep at night. Mine can rarely stay up more than 1.5 hours, so it's just impossible to have them up from 4pm-7pm...unless I want constant screaming babies.


Great idea with the walk! I'll try that. Mine will grudingly stay up between the last 2 feeding but it is constant bouncing and entertaining or it goes downhill FAST.

 

My girls are 5.5 months old and I still follow eat/play/sleep! They do take longer naps, but they also go longer between feedings.

They transitioned to longer naps around the 4 month mark. (That is also when I went to feeding 4 bottles a day.)

Here is our current schedule:

7:00 wake/ bottle/ play
9:00-10:30ish nap
11:00 bottle/ play
1:00-3:30ish nap
3:30 (or when wake) bottle/play
5:00-5:30 nap
6:15 bath
6:30 bottle/ book
7:00 bed

So, we are currently getting a 1:30 and 2:30 minute nap a day, plus a catnap in the evening. This has been a great schedule for us!

Also, like the PP, we took lots of evening walks with our girls at that age; it was the only thing that would calm them. I think they were just overtired/ overstimulated and couldn't calm themselves. We LOVED our Baby Bjorns for this reason! Many times they would fall asleep just hanging there.

 

Thanks for "talking" about this...I've been having a difficult time trying to get mine on a "schedule." They're only 5 weeks old, but they are doing okay. My one issue is that they fall asleep while breastfeeding and then it's difficult to have that play time in between feeding and napping. So, I've just been putting them down for naps right after feeding them - to which they promptly wake up b/c they don't want to go down. Any suggestions on keeping them awake while they're feeding? I sang and talked to them this morning and that worked for a little while, but then they both passed out! It's like I have sedatives in my boobs! Thanks!

 

At 3 months mine couldn't stay up much longer than one hour before having a meltdown. They always got a nap before their last feeding, and I adjusted the time accordingly.

We did eat/play/sleep until 4 months... then they started taking shorter naps, and still not being able to stay up much longer than one hour without fussing, so it didn't work anymore... Honestly life was much much easier for me when I stopped obsessing about it. Now if they wake up early from a nap, I just take them out and let them play, and feed them when they start fussing (or if it's been 4 hours). Their naps are never consistent so sometimes they play for an hour before a bottle, sometimes they don't.

 

I think mine switched to 3 naps a day around 4 to 4 and a half months. Mine did 90 minutes awake/90 minutes asleep for a very long time and then they just stopped on their own.

 

QUOTE(lucky123 @ Sep 18 2008, 10:55 AM) [snapback]985828[/snapback]
Our twins are 3 mo today . We've been doing the eat/play/sleep routine with some success. My question is how long do they do this (and when do they transition to longer naps).

And we've been keeping them up between their last two feedings (playing, giving a bath, etc.) but the past few nights they've been really hard to get to sleep. I'm wondering if keeping them up for 2ish hrs is making them overtired. Any ideas?



Keeping them up may be overstimulating. That may be why they don't sleep as well at night. I found this to be true when I tried that with my twins. The better they sleep during the day, the better they will sleep at night.