@ Shari – yes, I would say this is pretty standard 3-month behavior. Naps really don’t get consistent for most families until 5 or 6 months – that’s when babies start consolidating their nap sleep into several long(ish) naps. And the night-waking is normal, too, at this age – those night feeds are still very necessary.

Overall, I wouldn’t worry at all about this – young babies are, for the most part, notoriously unpredictable in the timing of their naps! Hang in there; you should see naps start normalize in the next few months. Until then, you may want to try out our sample schedules, to get a sense of what a good daily rhythm looks like for your baby.

Thanks for commenting, Shari, and good luck!

@ Sylvia Joy Swan Zakusilov – thanks for reaching out and sharing your tips! 🙂

@ Monica Young – oh, yes, daycare can totally mess wit your best efforts at consistency. In this case, it may be best to have two separate schedules – one for daycare days, and another for non-daycare days, and then work to stay consistent with each depending on the day. Have you considered trying that?

You may also be interested in this article on Tips To Make Daycare Nap Schedules work – some good, concrete steps in that article that outline how to get a modicum of consistency when you’re dealing with the daycare’s nap schedule.

Thanks for commenting, Monica! Best of luck to you 🙂

@ Erica Perry – oh, does it not? I’m a baker too, and I’ve thought for years that salt helped along the leavening process (ask me how I know – I’ve left salt out of recipes by mistake at least half a dozen times, and each time, whatever I’m making doesn’t rise properly – ends up flat and dense). But thanks for letting me know this! 😉

@ Juliet – don’t worry at all that ‘consistent’ means ‘exactly the same every night’ – it doesn’t! We generally tell people to aim for the same 30 minute window each night – so it sounds like you are hitting that perfectly 🙂 I think that when you’re sleep coaching, it’s a good idea to be a little more rigid, since you’re trying to set new habits, but if your guy is sleeping okay, then I’d say this 30-minute window sounds pretty great!

Thanks for coming, Juliet! 🙂

Heidi, my daughter started fighting naps and bedtime when she turned 3. Same story- if she took a nap, she’d take up to 2 hours to fall asleep at night and then only sleep 8-9 hours. Sounds like you should just cut out her nap altogether. We found by taking away her nap completely, our daughter would fall asleep very quickly in the evenings. (We had to move get bedtime earlier). And she started sleeping 11 hours total once nap was removed. She’d still nap once a week or so, but fight bedtime again on the days that she did nap.

He naps slightly better at home, but still only for an hour at most. The bad napping started when he was five months old, he napped quite well before then.

He’s a ridiculously happy baby despite not napping. In fact, the ladies at daycare say he giggles at them when they try to put him down for nap – he’d just rather play than sleep. So it doesn’t seem to be harming him really. But he does seem so exhausted by the evening and I also worry about how the napping will affect his learning and development.

Still a valid metaphor though!