How do you tell...

Ok just wondering if you can tell if you're baby is just not a sleepy baby or I'm just crap at getting her into a routine and not strict enough with her about sleeping?

I'm torn between accepting she's just not a sleepy baby and whether I'm just not doing a good enough job at getting her into a routine.

She's three months old tomorrow and only sleeps for one sleep cycle at a time most days. Then she plays catch up and has a huge sleep. But the last week I was wondering if she was having a growth spurt, as she seems all over the place for feeding too. That and baby just really hot with the weather. She seems really thirsty when I do put her on and gulps for ages after.

There's just so many variables, it's hard to know where I'm coming or going? Is this just the norm? have i just answered my own question

disco

The best thing I ever did was just accept that Natalie wasn't much of a sleeper. I used to spend so much time fighting to get her to sleep more than 30mins at a go (and therefore she was also feeding every 1.5-2 hours at that age)

Once I stopped stressing about what she *should* be doing, life became much easier. Sometimes you just have to follow the cues your baby gives you and go with the flow. Don't worry about what the books and plunket say Hopefully in your case, it might be a short-lived phase.

In our case, Natalie eventually started sleeping longer on her own, and now is doing 2 hours+

As weegee said, trust your instincts! You know your baby best

I am totally convinced that babies that sleep for just one sleep cycle are going through a phase. My 1st daughter (aged 7 years now) did this from about 6 weeks until just on 5 months old. Daughter #2 did this from about the same age to about 4 and a half months old - and sometimes still does this.

I learnt to structure my day around 4 x 45 min sleeps and as she got older and cut out one of these sleeps and occassionally put in a longer sleep to work out how and when she would be put to bed and get up again.

Really hard I know but as my husband told me "why worry. If that is what she is going to do then plan around that schedule."

Hang in there. Remember by the time they reach about 1 year old they only have 1 daytime sleep and by the time they get to 3 to 4 years old they don't have a daytime sleep at all. It will get easier..... promise!