Post by laceysbryan on Jan 31, 2015 15:24:20 GMT -5
I started to move to more of a "schedule" yesterday - LO is 2 weeks. I do still take cues from him for hunger and dirty diapers during "nap time" though. We also started a bedtime routine - which is just reading a book before a feeding around 9pm and then turning on the sound machine and keeping it darker and quieter in the room. We also keep it strictly business from that point on - no playing or overstimulation.
I think when/if you start a schedule depends on you and your baby, and what goals you have behind a schedule. My LO isn't terribly fussy, and a schedule is important for me since I'll be returning to work in 4 weeks. I want to have the groundwork laid so I can tweak things as needed before I go back to work instead of after.
So I change her diaper then feed then floor time then nap. This cycle happens every 4 hours. At 9 is her bedtime feeding where I read to her and she falls asleep and usually won't wake up until 1:30 am.
I attempted to start this past week when LO was 6 weeks. He's pretty consistent with night time though. He eats whenever he is hungry and normally will fall asleep from 10:30-2:30 then up around 5 then around 7.
We let baby lead, pretty much feed/sleep on demand. Over time, a loose schedule developed (DS is 12 weeks now). He goes to bed about 8:30, sleeps for about 12 hours but gets up once a night for a feeding/change. He usually takes two longer naps during the day (1-3 hours) and then little naps in his swing or bouncer as needed. It's not consistent though. Some days he sleeps more, some days less.
The older he got, the longer he went between feedings. For the first month, it was four hours between feedings (so 2-3 hours sleep at a time). Then it gradually increased. It was just within the last week that he started waking up only once a night. DS is also a big baby (9.2 lbs at birth, 14lbs at 2 months) and is FF. I think both those factors allow him to go longer between feedings.
We started a bedtime routine about 6 weeks: bath three times a week, lotion, get into PJs, read a couple books, snuggle for a few minutes then bed.
DD is 8 weeks old, and we still just follow her lead. I think at this point trying to schedule her wouldn't work anyways. I have heard that around 4 months you can start trying to let them self soothe for a little bit longer, but I haven't looked into that to see if it's really true or not. Beyond that, you can probably start a routine at any time to help soothe baby for sleep. We mostly do feed, change diaper, awake time, then sleep during the day, and just try to eliminate awake time as much as possible during the night by keeping the lights down low/things quiet. I'm probably not the best source though-DD doesn't sleep well unless she's being held. Maybe see what your pediatrician recommends?
My LO is 8 weeks. I'm not trying to put her on a schedule as much as I'm trying to figure out her patterns. My LO tends to go to sleep for the night (usually a 4 hour stretch ) around 11 pm. So I try not too stress when she's only taking 20 minute naps in the evening. We're normally up at 7am to get ready to take DS to school so even on weekends she normally still wakes up at 7.
Post by 3littleones on Feb 6, 2015 12:38:23 GMT -5
The only part of a schedule I have is up by 6 since that is the only way I can get me and the 3 LO's out the door on time. That with with all the sickness on our house every schedule we had going got royally screwed up. He's 7 weeks old.
Post by flockofmoosen on Feb 7, 2015 21:42:49 GMT -5
Scheduling is difficult for babies. You should try to stick to a routine instead. Try EASY. Eat, activity, sleep, your time. Then do your bedtime routine whenever it works best for your baby. Some go to bed early, some late. (Mine is 8 months)
I basically just follow her lead during the day, but always aim to have her asleep around 10:30 or 11. She is doing well so far. Once we change her, put on Pjs, swaddle, feed her, and put her in her rnp, she seems to understand it's time to sleep. Sometimes it takes a bit longer to put her down, but so far, at about 4 weeks now, this nighttime schedule has worked well for us!
Post by flockofmoosen on Feb 13, 2015 22:25:44 GMT -5
Also, I notice that even now my baby is ready for bed about 12 hours after waking up for the day. If she sleeps in I have trouble putting her down at her normal bedtime, and if up earlier than usual, she's ready for bed earlier.
Scheduling is difficult for babies. You should try to stick to a routine instead. Try EASY. Eat, activity, sleep, your time. Then do your bedtime routine whenever it works best for your baby. Some go to bed early, some late. (Mine is 8 months)
This is what we do with my 9 week old, although at thus point the "your time" portion may or may not happen. Ds does not respond well if I try to schedule, but he has responded very well to the routine. I also find it easier to figure out what his cries mean depending on what part of the cycle we are in.
We started with a bedtime routine which seemed easiest to implement at four weeks... At 7pm we nursed, give a bath and then rock, swaddle or walk but all with the lights down low with the goal being for him to be asleep by 8pm. We made it a habit and it seems good for him and us.
We wanted to expand our schedule to daytime. Recently we were having a problem with lots of <40min naps and 2hr awake times in between with him being somewhat fussy. After a little investigation I saw that this was a common problem and that the more sleep leads to better naps. So after one hour of being up we start the nap process and this repeats all day and now we get some short naps but now one 2-3 hour nap too. Plus he doesn't get overstimulated and too tired when he is up. Much more fun for everyone.
I'm a big fan of the EASY philosophy too. I had an easy time of reading DD1's cues but LO has been sick so much (on her second cold, plus thrush) in her short life that I felt like I really couldn't read her cues.
I started doing EASY at about 9 weeks and that's really helped us find her schedule during the day. I also track her sleep in the Feed Baby Pro App (I used to track her eating and voiding as well, but don't need to anymore). I go back to work in 2 and a half weeks (!) so it's important for me to get her routine down now.
DS is 6 weeks on Saturday and only in the past week have I been gently nudging him into more of a schedule...and by schedule I mean helping him distinguish between night and day following the EASY schedule that others have mentioned. This is the toughest hurdle to getting them to settle more easily during the night after feeds, IMO. I only feed him at night with the lights off, avoid diaper changes and any kind of interaction in hopes that he will fall back right asleep. During the day I change his diaper immediately upon waking, feed and then we have awake time for 30 mins to an hour depending on how long he can tolerate it. He then goes to sleep until the next feed. He eats about every 3-4 hours. Around 7-8pm I'll wake him for his last feed before we go to bed and keep him up as best I can for 2-3 hours so he is extra tired and then feed him another couple ounces before he zonks out.
With DD, I started implementing a bedtime routine around 10 weeks old when she had the EASY routine down pretty well. This is about the time she suddenly started sleeping 8-9 hours straight through the night. I don't think DS will be like this as he is one hungry little dude. DD was not a big eater.
Post by happymonkey on Apr 9, 2015 13:11:49 GMT -5
My daughter is 2.5 months old, and whatever schedule we sort of have, came about naturally. We just follow her cues and adjust according to what she needs. Sometimes those things follow a pattern, and sometimes they don't. I recommend the Feed Baby app. It will help you track everything and show you charts so you might see some patterns. Good luck.
Post by mittenmomma on Apr 11, 2015 10:38:51 GMT -5
For us, I didn't try to put DSS on a strict schedule until lo was born. He was 7.5 mo old when she arrived, and she is 4 weeks old now so we've been at it for about a month. He wakes around 7am, nap at 10am until around noon, nap at 3pm until around 5pm, bedtime routine (dinner, bathtime, book, then bottle) is started at 7:30pm and he's in bed by 8:30pm. And repeat. We allow him to self-soothe to sleep (if he isn't asleep when I lay him down) and self-wake in the morning and from his naps. He does very well with it and rarely wakes MOTN anymore. The only exception is when his teething pain is too intense for him to sleep soundly. And overall we do very well with sticking to it, mainly because if it gets thrown off it takes about 3-4 days to get back on schedule again.
We started EASY (really more a pattern than a schedule) around 6 weeks with DS1 and it made life so much better, so I started it around 4 weeks with DS2. He's about 8 weeks now and he's doing great. I've gotten better at reading his cues so he passes out at naptime pretty easily (or he goes down drowsy and he falls asleep relatively easily). He'll end up on more of a schedule once he goes to daycare in July, since we'll have a set wake-up time.
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