And what did it look like? LO is only a little over two weeks old which I know is early but I was wondering at what point did you start a schedule with your LO and what did it look like?
-
I didn't put DD on a schedule, I let one evolve organically by watching her signals. I would say for the first 6-ish weeks it's pretty much: eat, diaper change, sleep, repeat. After the six week mark their awake time extends a little, but at that age they generally won't stay awake for more than an hour. So I'd feed her, play a little (read or sing) and then put her down for a nap. And then basically just repeated that numerous times a day.
For quite awhile her awake time was an hour, then 90 minutes and around five months it lengthened to two hours and now, at six months, we do a 234 schedule, because that's what she was naturally tending towards. I'm big on trusting your baby and letting them tell you what works best for them, so I think the biggest key is to watch them like a hawk for sleep signals and then put them down. Your LO's innate schedule will become quite clear over time
-
We still don't have a good schedule at 3 months and I wish we did. I don't know of there is something I could have done differently early on to make it better. Naps are horrible.
Her bedtime has evolved on her own and she pretty much tells us when she's done for the day.
-
Well, it was loose and wasn't really a schedule persay. At 6 weeks pp, i started waking her up at a certain time. Her mornings and midday times went great. Then it went to shit in the afternoon. We'd try to put her to bed at a certain time every evening, just to get some routine in our day
She ended up on a relatively firm schedule right before I returned to work. Now we live and die by that thing
-
She's 4 months and we still don't have a darn schedule! It actually surprised me because I'm a very scheduled, routine type of person, but a daytime routine just doesn't work for her. We *do* have a bedtime routine that we started at about 6 weeks, but as for her naps and such, they have general times, but we still feed on demand and read her sleep cues.
-
Three months! It just wouldn't work before then and I went back to work at that time so it worked out really well. By schedule I just mean waking at a certain time, eating at a roundabout time and going to bed at a certain time.
-
6 weeks. DD is currently 8 weeks old and we have been trying our best sticking to it. We find her less fussy, has become more calm throughout the day and sleeps better at night. Of course it is nowhere perfect and there will be an odd day here and there but this is our schedule: wake up between 7:00 - 7:30am, eat at 7:30am, awake for 60-90 mins/nap (A/N), eat at 10am, nap, eat at 12:30pm, A/N, eat at 3:00pm, A/N, 5:30pm, A/N, eat at 8:00pm, awake most of the time, eat at 11:15pm, sleep, wake up around 5:30am to eat and repeat! I know this sounds a little ridiculous for a NB to stick to my craziness but it allows me to plan things around and it works for both of me, DD and DH!
-
We started a bedtime routine early (4-ish weeks). She's now 12 weeks and her max awake time is 1.5 hours, so she naps several times a day but her schedule depends on when she wakes up for the day so she doesn't nap at the same exact time every day.
-
At like 8 weeks, we started a bedtime routine. Then she slowly has moved up bedtime, been around 7 for the last three months now. She is 7.5 months and still no routine for naps. Different time and lengths every single day. We just started a set routine for bottles and solids last week. Otherwise before it was just every three hours for a bottle.
-
@Smurfette: How do you know if you should move bedtime up? What were the signs? We usually start bedtime routine around 7:30/7:45 and she's usually asleep by 8/8:15. But sometimes I wonder if I should move it earlier. She goes down fine and sleeps well, she just tends to get fussy before the routine starts. (Sorry to threadjack!)
-
@lawbee11: Before day care I started nursing to sleep at 8, and it would be 9 before she was down. Yeah, it took an hour to get her asleep. Once she started day care, it was 7/730 I could tell she was tired, so we started nursing then. Then we sleep trained and she was asleep by 730. Then she just started rubbing her eyes sooner every night. So now no matter what, she gets a bottle (I weaned) at 630, and is asleep by 7ish. Last night she was asleep by 630 cause she was tired.
-
3 or 4 weeks. I used the Moms on Call book. Their suggested schedules start at 3 weeks old. It worked really well for us!
-
maybe around 8 weeks i tried to be more exact about LO's feeding times, but naps were all over the place so i'm not sure i really felt like there was a schedule.
-
I never imposed a schedule, but things got pretty regular around 6 months and extremely regular by 9.
-
My LO's schedule is similar to what @lawbee11: wrote above. She is 11 weeks right now.
We started a bedtime routine at about 6w which involves pjs, book, swaddle, nurse, sleep. We tend to start it around 8:30pm and on good nights she's asleep by 9. We are very lucky and she sleeps 10-12 hours straight so our day starts anywhere from 7-9am.
During the day she is usually only awake for an hour before she gets cranky and I put her down for a nap. Her naps are anywhere from 45 mins- 2 hours. When she wakes up she eats for a few minutes, we play for about 45, then we go to her room and swaddle and nurse to sleep (I need to stop doing this soon!)
She starts getting fussy around 5pm and until bedtime she pretty much nurses constantly with little cat naps. I think she just tanks up so she can sleep through the night.
I pretty much am still just following her cues and feeding on demand and hopefully soon she will be on a three nap/day schedule or something more regular! Her naps are always at different times during the day depending on when she first wakes up.
-
Never, we aren't schedule people, and we have survived to almost 2 years that way. I followed his signals, and a vague one showed up eventually. Not following one made it easier to roll with the constant changes.
-
We started doing EASY at 3 weeks, which really helped us get into a ROUTINE and made our days a lot more predictable!!! I sooooo recommend it!
And then we started doing a bedtime routine around 8 weeks, which really helped with nighttime sleep!
-
We didn't have a schedule until after 6 months... Even then it was very fluid. We started a bedtime routine early on, but I don't think it was necessary.
-
@Adira: what is easy? Little one will be 3 weeks on Monday and I do not do well with lack of structure. I go back to work when he is 8 weeks so I'd like to have a little routine going by then.
-
@ladybee: EASY is Eat, Activity, Sleep, You.
Essentially the idea is to get your LO on a routine where you're not nursing them to sleep and they have some structure in their day so they (and you) know what to expect.
Basically when they wake up, you feed them immediately, and then you keep them up for a short period of time (for the activity). Xander would always fall asleep nursing, so I'd do his diaper change AFTER eating to kind of wake him up. Then after activity (which might be as short as just the diaper change or as long as an hour+), you put them down for a nap! Then while they're sleeping, you get YOU time!
It's all described in the book "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg.
Here's a link with more info and some examples: http://noobmommy.com/2008/12/easy-routine-from-baby-whisperer.html
-
@Adira: I know you started this at 3 weeks but I'd like to start now at 11w. How exactly do I put her down for naps without nursing? Do I just let her cry? Or do try rocking to sleep? That would be a sleep crutch too then. She goes down for naps so well with nursing I'm scared to stop! Tell me your secrets!
-
@delight: I'm afraid I don't have any secrets!!! I don't know how to get a baby who is used to nursing to sleep to fall asleep on their own! I really just got lucky with Xander. I'd put him in his swing and he'd just swing and look around and eventually just fall asleep without me having to do anything!!! I'm sorry I have no advice!
-
@Adira: I think I'm just scared to mess with a good thing. Her naps are great and she STTN. I know I have to eventually get rid of nursing to sleep but I was kinda hoping she'd just kinda stop on her own! I do think the EASY schedule in theory is awesome but maybe I should keep going with my "EAESY" routine for now.
-
@delight: I'm not sure what your plans are, but are you going to be returning to work anytime soon (if at all)? If so, you may want to try weaning her of nursing to sleep for naps since she won't be able to do that when you're working.
Does she take a pacifier? You could try doing the motions similar to nursing, holding her close, rocking, but give her a pacifier instead and see if she'll still go to sleep okay. Then you can slowly transition to just putting her in bed with the pacifier or something.
-
@delight: I have the same question and have no idea. I read the baby whisperer book and she pretty much is like, oh yeah it will be hard if they are used to something else, be patient. But I didn't feel she gave good concrete advice on how to break that habit. We still nurse to sleep or bounce if nursing doesn't work. But her sleep is pretty terrible. She is 3 months.
-
We started at 3 & 1/2 weeks
going well so far- he's 6 weeks now.
-
@Foodnerd81: we are only a couple weeks behind you! Maybe I'll start a thread to get some advice on how to stop nursing to sleep!
-
I waited it out until my son got his days and nights sorted, at around 5 weeks. Then we were on a schedule, not because I did anything, but because he naturally put himself on one.
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite1
27 comments