3 Month Old Never Sleeps

My DS is about 3.5 months old and I am having a lot of troubles with him sleeping.  He is such an awful sleeper... Here is my problem.  He will go to bed at 7:30 pm and sleep straight (usually) until 3:00 - 3:30 am and then eat.  Sometimes he won't eat.  But he's into this new habit of not going back to sleep.  He won't nap during the day unless he is sleeping on me.  If I put him in his crib, he will sleep a maximum of 40 minutes if I am lucky.  He does this 3-4 times a day, with the rest of the naps generally being 20 minutes.  The exception is if he is in his swing when he will sometimes sleep longer but if I stop the swing once he is asleep he wakes up.  

I am very frustrated by this... it has been this way since he was born, pretty much, with the exception of sleeping the 8 hours.  I just don't know what to do - online it says babies needing like, 12+ hours of sleep, and he is just not getting that.  Plus... it is driving me nuts with him and then a 2 year old.  I have tried everything... and just for the record BabyWise does not work for us, he refuses to eat once he wakes up.  I've tried a nap routine, everything.

HELP!

[meiram]

I feel your pain.  My son is 3 months old and has a similar sleeping schedule, except mine still wakes every 2 - 3 hours at night to eat.  

He goes to sleep at 9:30 or 10:00 and sleeps until 1:00, then up again at 4 and 6:30 or so.  He takes about 3 or 4 naps a day IN HIS SWING.  If I lay him down anywhere else, he wakes up right away.  His naps are about 40 minutes or so.  

The only suggestion I have is maybe try a later bed time.  Mine takes his last nap around 6:00 at night.  My DH doesn't get home until 6:30, so if ds went to bed at 7:00, they would never see each other.  

If it's any consolation, my dd was a terrible sleeper when she was young, but now she is great.  My son is a happy baby overall, so I just assume some babies need less sleep than others.  Hope you get some rest soon!  

[Atlanta Girl]

Your post brought some memories back... my son was even worse!  But I didn't have a 2 yo to deal with too, though.  I really feel for you!  My son would only nap twice a day for 20-30 min and only if somebody was holding him.  During the night, he was going to bed at 8 and waking up at 1-2 and then 4 and than 6 ... until he was 13 months!  At about 8-9 months he started napping on the swing for about 40 min and that was a huge progress!  He's now 19 months and sleeps through the night, with only one nap in the afternoon for 2 hours (only if he's at daycare).   I would read stuff online too and see how long babies are supposed to sleep and get really frustrated!  Some babies are just bad sleepers I guess.  I sure won't have another one again after this experience!  Hope it gets better for you soon!

[BearHitch]

Well... I certainly feel better knowing he's not the only one.  I've been, the last few days, just letting him sleep in his swing.  I put him to nap in his crib and when he wakes up his 20 minutes later put him in the swing and he falls asleep and will nap in there (as long as it swings) for an hour or two.  I need it just for my sanity!  I'm afraid I am reinforcing a bad sleeping habit, but I guess as long as he doesn't need rocked at night it won't hurt him.  Thanks for sharing the stories - I guess I'm lucky that he will sleep at night!  Can't imagine where I would be without that....

[kedarhaze]

My 6yrs use to do that when he was a baby, my mom told me to let him nap early in the afternoon but stop him from sleeping until bed time. It did work for me, after a week he learn the sleep schedule. The started falling asleep by 7 or 8 n waking only when he was hungry.