when did your child get on a schedule, and how did you do it?

Question

I have a 14 day old little girl and I have to go back to work soon. I was wondering how long does it take to get them on a schedule and how do you go about doing it? I know that every child is diffrent, but thought I would get a idea of what I need to do.

Answer 1

In my opinion, you should not put a 2-week old infant on a schedule. Infants need to be fed on demand. Some days they are hungrier than others, particularly as they go through growth spurts. As far as implementing a schedule, I was very keen on doing the same and I was able to do it, but, and this is just my opinion and experience with one child, you can't really do it until the baby's sleep becomes a little more "organized", which doesn't really happen for several months.

With infants as young as yours you can make your life a little easier by repeating a feeding-playing-sleeping routine. Here's what I did:

When my daughter was an infant and I was home on maternity leave, I would feed her when she awoke in the morning, then we'd have play time. During play time I'd be watching for the first signs of sleepiness. When her energy seemed to wane or I saw that first yawn or rubbing of the eyes, I'd swaddle her up and put her down for a nap - without feeding her as a method to get her to fall asleep. If she wanted to suck I'd let her suck on my pinkie. I quickly saw that she just wanted the comfort of sucking, cause she'd drift right off and wasn't actually hungry, so this confirmed it. Then I'd feed her again when she woke up. We'd repeat this cycle several times throughout the day. Typically, she'd get up around 6:30 or so and go to bed at night around 7:00 or 7:30. I think that her "awake" time was at most 2 hours per cycle, but often it was shorter. And I'd feed on demand at night.

When she was about 8 weeks I was more diligent about getting her to fall asleep on her own at nap time, making sure she did not fall asleep in my arms. I'd put her in her bassinet drowsy but still awake and she'd drift off. I think this is key to helping them eventually sleep through the night, because it teaches them how to get to sleep on their own, which is helpful for those times when they wake up at night - they have the skill necessary to get themselves back to sleep.

Since I was going back to work at 15 weeks, I didn't mind the night feedings, since they helped me keep up my milk supply. I just let her determine when the night feedings would stop, though as the months wore on I would delay my response to see if she would settle herself down. And also sometimes I would send my husband in to see if he could settle her and that helped too. You get to a point where you know they are waking out of habit, not really from hunger. The key is that the learn how to fall asleep on their own with those daytime naps, that will help the baby go back to sleep at night (I initially couldn't get her to fall asleep on her own when I put her down for the night because I would always breastfeed right before bed - the only exception to the no feeding before sleep rule - and she would fall asleep nursing most of the time. Some experts say that you should gently wake baby up then put her down, but that just seemed mean to me, but the daytime naps helped develop the skill). She first slept through the night at 6.5 mos. Sleeping through the night aside, the real by-the-clock routine didn't come until she no longer needed the eat-play-sleep cycle, which for her was at about 5 mos. At that point, we settled into a nice routine - Up at 6:30, down for a nap at 10am, up again around noon, nap again at 3pm, up again at 5pm and down for the night at about 7:30 or 8:00. That worked perfectly until she was about 13 mos., when we started to transition from 2 naps a day to 1. That transition took a couple of months, but that's where we still are today - up at about 7am, nap from 1-3:30 or 4 pm and down at 8:30 or 9pm.

The really important thing also, at any stage, is to have a sense for how much total sleep baby needs in a given 24 hr period, adding up overnight sleep and naps. So if something happens to throw off the schedule, you can adjust bedtime or naps accordingly to get enough total sleep.

Good luck!

Answer 2

First develop a routine that you can stick to and do that every night. For instance, feed at 7pm, bath at 7:30, cuddling ath7:45, bed by 8.... as your child grows you will adjust and change as needed. The key to a schedule is to stick to it. Deviate as little as possible..

Answer 3

My pediatrician told me 25% of baby's sleep through the night (I guess that' what your asking). My daughter slept through the night at 2 months, but then she started waking up again and I though I wasn't going to make it. I would say giving the baby a bath before bedtime and a warm bottle. Also, giving my daughter formula with the cereal (I started at 2 months) helped a lot cuz she didn't wake up as much for food. Good Luck!

Answer 4

When you feed her at night do not turn on the lights, keep it dark and put her to bed promptly. During the day when she gets old enough to stay up a little bit keep her up and play with her. This way she knows light up, dark sleep. It worked with my three moth old she has slept through the night for almost a month now.

Answer 5

Your probably already in a bit of a routine without knowing it. You'll know what time she has her feeds, her naps, bath time (morning or night), bed time (though bed time is a bit tricky with such a little baby...and naps for that matter - they sleep all the time). At this age your only going to be in a kinda feeding and bath routine, the rest goes however cos shes so tiny. But keep going, as she gets a bit older you will realise what time she wants to sleep and what time she feels ready to go to bed and it will kinda establish itself. I know that people go on and on about routine but trust me, it does help when they get older cos they know exactly what there doing and they feel in control. Plus it makes it easier for you to nip out to the shop or something knowing what time you want to be back for. Good luck with it all and enjoy your baby.

Answer 6

Dont give in to them. I mean.... give them a bottle to go to bed or a pacifire. When the wake up in the middle of the night, dont give them another bottle. If they start getting another bottle they will keep expecting it and will wake up each night looking for it. They will soon learn not to wake up because there is no reason for it.

Answer 7

IT IS ALL ABOUT ROUTINE...START ONE AND STICK BY IT..YOUR DAUGHTER WILL CATCH ON. I WAS LUCKY MY SON HAD HIS OWN AND IT WAS PERFECT!! ALWAYS HAS GONE TO SLEEP BETWEEN 7-8 SINCE BIRTH!! GOOD LUCK