Let's talk schedules

[dogmama22]

Again.
I know we had this conversation, but now that our babies are a bit older, I think we're due again.
Z seems to operate well on an every 2 hour schedule. We're working on eat, play, sleep, but I've never worked with him on any sort of schedule before. Today I decided to get started and as I was getting ready to put him down for his first nap, I realized he'll be due to eat again about 15 minutes after I put him down. Does anyone else have a baby still eating every 2 hours? Does this method work? How long are these naps typically? I feel like this cycle will continue since I'm timing feeds from the time they started and naps from the time he wakes up. Am I overthinking this?

[carolyngrace]

The 2 hour cycle doesn't apply to eating, from my understanding. It's the length of time between when they get up and when they go down for their next nap.

My baby (3.5 months old) still operates on 1.5 hours awake best (and sometimes closer to 1 hour if he's fussy). So when he wakes up he eats, plays for a little bit, and then sleeps for 1-3 hours, depending. So it could be anywhere from 2-4 hours in-between meals.

Eta: after his evening nap he may be awake for 2 hours or so. That's his longest stretch.

[periwinkledaydreams]

I think you may be overthinking it. Then again, I might be the last person who should weigh in as far as schedules! I am however of the opinion that our LOs set their own schedules at this point and its up to us to just read their cues. The hours may work as rough guidelines, but no way is my girl doing anything "every 2 hours". She just sleeps and eats and plays whenever all day until its eventually night time and I put her down for bed around 8.

[periwinkledaydreams]

Sept 14, 2015 10:41:36 GMT -5 @babybean9 said:

I have no set schedule at all. I feel bad sometimes because I read about people having "nighttime routines", eat play sleep routines etc. I do none of that. He sleeps when he wants, we play for hours, he'll entertain himself, he goes to bed around 7:30 pm everyday, but that's just the time he generally sets for himself. He's eating every 1.5 hours like clockwork though.

Mine is often up playing for hours at a time as well, and Im always like "the internet and the books say youre supposed to sleep every 1.5 hours.. " but if shes just chillin happily I let her continue. Other times she passes out on her own after an hour, or she wants to eat again even though she ate when she woke up 45 minutes ago. Still other times she just seems sleepy or fussy and I help her fall asleep. We're very go with the flow. Only thing on schedule here is bedtime.

[dogmama22]

He's hungry every two hours like clockwork. I don't want to force him to change that. I'm just confused because since he wakes up in the morning around 6:30 and eats right away, he's due to both sleep and eat around 8:30. Maybe I should push naps closer to every 1 1/2 hours rather than 2 and then things would line up better. He did sleep for about 40 minutes when I put him down right before he was due to eat, though.

[musicfrk2002]

The only real "schedule" we are on is for eating. J typically eats every 3 hours, once in awhile it will be closer to 2.5 or up to 4 hours. He seems to eat-play-sleep in the morning, then at some point turns to eat-play-sleep-play, then eat-sleep-play. He usually falls asleep for the night right after his last bottle, around 8 or 830 and sleeps until between 630 and 8 am.

[dogmama22]

@freckleface that's similar to our bedtime. I have the opposite issue where LO doesn't really show early tired cues. He waits until he's overly tired and then it's harder to get him down.

[turtletyme]

I have been wanting to ask about bedtime routines too. DH doesn't get home from work til 6:30 at the earliest, nor will I when I go back to work. It makes these 7 pm bedtimes I hear about impossible. Plus I feel like she's never going to get a bath ever again once I go to work, because night time is too busy. Right now she gets one early, like 4 or 5 pm, which I can theoretically keep doing on my work from home days if I pick her up early... I don't know how people who work even longer hours than us do it (we have long commutes).

[periwinkledaydreams]

One of my goals is to get better about establishing a nighttime routine, I think my girl would benefit greatly from it. Our evenings are just always so different depending on what time SO gets off work and whether her and I are home or out of the house, both of which change dinner plans, which inevitably affects her last nap of the afternoon/evening. I try to at least keep diaper, jammies, nurse, swaddle, rock to sleep around the same time, it just often means Im not eating until after shes asleep at 8:30/9. How do you super mommas stick to your bedtime and fit in dinner time and bath time EVERY NIGHT, especially when youre back to work? FWIW we currently do NOT bathe baby every night, but I know some people do. I don't necessarily need to get it happening every night but I do want to get it happening a bit more regularly!

I told yall Im shit at schedules!

[Deleted]

The only schedule we have is our bedtime routine from 7-8:30. Other than that he does what he wants when he wants.

[Bluedaisy]

Question: for those of you doing the eat, play ,sleep do you wake baby up if he falls asleep while eating?

[erbear]

The only schedule we have is that she eats every two hours during the day. Otherwise she kind of does what she wants. It works for us, though!

[carolyngrace]

Sept 14, 2015 12:14:31 GMT -5 Bluedaisy said:

Question: for those of you doing the eat, play ,sleep do you wake baby up if he falls asleep while eating?

Personally I've never had that happen. He eats immediately after waking up, so he's not going to fall back asleep. If he did I would assume his nap wasn't long enough and put him back down.

[carolyngrace]

Interesting it seems people's babies are either "scheduled" eaters or "scheduled" sleepers here!

Honestly eat/play/sleep works perfectly for us, along with 1.5 hour awake time, because DB melts down with anything else. I think it's worth trying for people who feed their babies are constantly fussy or over-tired, but I totally understand NOT doing it that way if your LO will be happily awake for longer! No need to force it, but for some it's very helpful.

[ashbash]

Sept 14, 2015 12:14:31 GMT -5 Bluedaisy said:

Question: for those of you doing the eat, play ,sleep do you wake baby up if he falls asleep while eating?

This is why it never worked for DD1, that girl had the strongest nurse- sleep association! So we just went with her flow and it worked

[ashbash]

We have a rough routine we follow, the only things that are set are afternoon nap at 1 because that is when big sister naps and in order to maintain my sanity I need some overlap and night time routine bath, stories, nurse and rock to sleep at 7:30

[Deleted]

Everytime I reply that LO has a schedule the next day she just does the opposite so let's just say I have no clue what her schedule is!!

[billyhorrible]

Sept 14, 2015 11:02:53 GMT -5 dogmama22 said:

He's hungry every two hours like clockwork. I don't want to force him to change that. I'm just confused because since he wakes up in the morning around 6:30 and eats right away, he's due to both sleep and eat around 8:30. Maybe I should push naps closer to every 1 1/2 hours rather than 2 and then things would line up better. He did sleep for about 40 minutes when I put him down right before he was due to eat, though.

There's no way BH could stay awake for 2 hours. This morning he was up at 6:30, then asleep by 8. So don't take the 2 hours as gospel. We have the opposite issue as periwinkle in that neither of my kids could ever stay awake as long as the internet claimed they could.

As for the hungry every 2 hours thing, does that mean if you he's asleep he wakes? I was feeding BH every 2 hours before I returned to work, but I'd have to wake him to do so. When I feed on demand he'll often sleep through the 2 hour mark and I just feed him when he gets up.

[baytosa2013]

We are a scheduled eater over here. She always wants to eat at almost exactly the same time each day. her schedule looks like this: She's up at 5:30 and eats, 8:30ish, 11:00ish, 1:30ish, 4:00ish, 7:00ish, final feeding at 9:00-9:30 depending on cues. She takes 3-4 cat naps during the day at day care anywhere from 15 mins to an hour (I think this depends on whether the other kids are having a fit or not). Sometimes she will take a little nap between the 7pm and 9pm feedings. We know it's naptime if she starts fussing and she's already eaten and doesn't have a wet diaper. Usually all it takes is her paci and a few bounces in the bouncy chair and she's out like a light. She's pretty much been on this schedule since about 6 weeks. She just set it for herself and we've gone along because it works well for our schedules, we go to bed shortly after she does.

[dogmama22]

Sept 14, 2015 13:53:52 GMT -5 billyhorrible said:

Sept 14, 2015 11:02:53 GMT -5 dogmama22 said:

He's hungry every two hours like clockwork. I don't want to force him to change that. I'm just confused because since he wakes up in the morning around 6:30 and eats right away, he's due to both sleep and eat around 8:30. Maybe I should push naps closer to every 1 1/2 hours rather than 2 and then things would line up better. He did sleep for about 40 minutes when I put him down right before he was due to eat, though.

There's no way BH could stay awake for 2 hours. This morning he was up at 6:30, then asleep by 8. So don't take the 2 hours as gospel. We have the opposite issue as periwinkle in that neither of my kids could ever stay awake as long as the internet claimed they could.

As for the hungry every 2 hours thing, does that mean if you he's asleep he wakes? I was feeding BH every 2 hours before I returned to work, but I'd have to wake him to do so. When I feed on demand he'll often sleep through the 2 hour mark and I just feed him when he gets up.

I was worried he would wake if I put him down to sleep right around the time he would usually eat, but we've done two 40 minute naps now right around his usual feeding times. Maybe this will work for us after all.
I'm working on a schedule for a few reasons, but one is that I have trouble reading his cues. I've noticed he gives hungry cues sometimes when he's actually tired. He takes 3 1/2 - 4 1/2oz when I do weighted feeds, so he should be ok going longer than 2 hours. Today I've been putting him down every two hours for a nap and he has gone right to sleep and then he wakes up about 40 minutes later to eat. When I put him down at the 90 minute mark, he wasn't interested in sleeping. I'm thinking he's actually been tired when I've been feeding every two hours. Pardon my thinking out loud there.

[ashbash]

Sept 14, 2015 14:55:02 GMT -5 Joolschweets said:

Sept 14, 2015 12:18:56 GMT -5 erbear said:

The only schedule we have is that she eats every two hours during the day. Otherwise she kind of does what she wants. It works for us, though!

This. Only without the working for us part. Ok so he's not bad and like clockwork with feeds but naps are a total clusterf*ck which really screws with bedtime so we never have a set time for that b/c it depends how little he slept and how manically overtired he is. Like now when he's screamed for 3 hours and won't go down
I'm killing myself trying to get him to sleep in the day and it's still not working. I've tried pretty much everything. So right now, even the notion of a schedule makes me disheartened.

((Hugs)) DD1 only napped in a carrier or car until 6 months when I felt comfortable doing some sleep training. I wish she would sleep in a crib or swing but at least if she slept she wasnt an overtired devil baby. Like I would go to Target and walk around with her in a carrier for nap time even if I didnt need to buy anything haha Mamas gotta do what a Mamas gotta do

Have you tired....
Black out curtains
White noise
Cat naps
Holding him for naps
Swaddle / Unswasddled
Paci
Swing or bouncer
Sleeping on his tummy ( supervised)

Just throwing anything and everything Ive tried out there, good luck!!!!

[nchauhan]

My kid also has no schedule...he sleeps, plays and eats whenever he wants. Although he does seem to nap at daycare more than at home! Nights are a toss up, one night we'll get a great 5 hour, 3 hour and 2 hour stretch, then the next night he's up every two hours.

[wegrowsheep]

Sept 14, 2015 17:26:27 GMT -5 @jemomma said:

I'm curious to hear from moms of 3+ how schedules are going. I am having such a hard time keeping M on any kind of schedule while also taking care of my other 2 kids. I feel really bad because she gets over tired A LOT!

So, my mornings usually start around 6:30. T is always awake first these days, followed by DS1(4) and then DD(6) about an hour later. I juggle baby and breakfast prep, then nag the big kids to get dressed (usually), and get DD started on schoolwork. T is pretty much in my arms the whole time, unless he lets me put him on his playmat for a couple minutes. He eats every 2 hours, sometimes more. He usually naps every 3 hrs for anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes. I just juggle that all day. DS1 probably gets the least attention right now, since homeschooling a 1st grader is proving to be a challenge sometimes .

ETA: bed time almost always happens around 8:30. Also, T hates his carseat and sobs with real tears the whole time. When we got home last night, I was nearing tears of frustration. I just hate leaving the house with him!

[bendherova]

Sept 14, 2015 12:14:31 GMT -5 Bluedaisy said:

Question: for those of you doing the eat, play ,sleep do you wake baby up if he falls asleep while eating?

no. and This often traps me in my chair for an hour or more bc if I try to move him from my lap, he wakes. twice yesterday he woke from a 35min nap (having fallen asleep on his own in the crib) nursed and fell back to sleep.

I follow the 60-90min awake time guideline but there is no scheduled anything. The only thing that is remotely the same daily is that he goes to bed between 7-8pm.

[missjenniebean]

V is 4 months today. She still eats about every 2.5 hours to three or 4 depending on the day. She has a definite hungry cry. She usually cat naps throughout the day so if she is sleeping I won't wake her. Shell sleep for about twenty minutes for her naps and are sporadic. Some days she'll be asleep every two hours some days she is up longer.
She is cranky and ready for bed time routine about 6 so she is usually asleep by 730. We dim the lights. We dont have cable/netflix so the tv sound isn't usually a problem. She sleeps until about 5-6 in the morning. Maybe wakes once. Her sleep cues are she rubs her face and her eyes gets heavy and look like lil bags. During the day we follow her cues for sure and but she naturally moved up her bedtime. Which us nice BC it gives SO and I much needed recoup time.

[mathistm]

A schedule has been a point of disagreement for my husband and I for baby (and for all 6 years of our relationship). It makes him kind of crazy to not have a routine and I am go with the flow almost to a fault. We balance each other out pretty well. However, I am home with Lo the most so we are pretty lax with her schedule. Sometimes it's actually easier for me for him to not be home (which I feel bad even saying) because he messes with our non-schedule schedule. Lo does kind of have a routine but it changes so frequently that I'm not sure it's a good idea to start being rigid at all about it yet. She has pretty serious cues for hunger and tired. She has become overtired maybe once in her life and I try to not let that happen or else it is misery.