How do you get your baby on a schedule?

Question

I just let him sleep whenever he wants during the day. Sometimes he is awake at night, sometimes not. I have no clue how to get him on a schedule.

Answer 1

Don't. He sounds fine. Babies don't need a schedule. As your child ages, he will sleep/eat/poop/pee when he needs to. Once your child is 10 months or so, you can start a schedule a bit. When he eats the same foods you do, then put his eating on a schedule. About the only thing you should schedule is sleep. Putting your child down at a certain time at night is good for them. But even that should wait a bit. At night, keep it dark. In the day, keep it well lit. He'll figure things out. I always feel sorry for a kid that has everything so scheduled that if he screams for food 10 minutes early the parent will make the poor child wait until the "scheduled" time. Poor baby!

Answer 2

I recommend the book "On Becoming Baby Wise" by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam for getting a baby on a schedule. A basic rundown on how to get a baby on a schedule is to have a feed time, wake time and sleep time. So for example say you feed your baby every three hours (3,6,9,12 etc.) During the day and early evening you feed them, change their diapers and keep them awake for about 20 min. or so before putting them down for a nap, if they stay awake longer that's fine. During the late night and early morning feedings, you change the diaper, feed them and put them back to bed. Keep the room fairly dark and don't make a lot of noise during these times so that the baby learns these are "quiet" hours for sleeping. It will be hard to get them on a schedule at first but if you stick with it, you'll succeed. They won't stick to a schedule exactly but getting fairly close is fine. Remember to be flexible especially during growth spurts when they'll want to eat more and more often. Good luck.

Answer 3

Try to do the same thing in the same order each day.

Like: wake up, eat, play, eat, sleep, wake up, eat, walk, tv time (for you mostly), etc.

Then once your baby is used to the same things happening in the same order try to have them happen at the same time.

However, honestly, their needs for food and sleep change so drastically each day I am not sure that there is much you can do. I had a schedule for awhile where I knew what order things would happen, but sometimes he would play for 30 min and need a nap, and other days it was 2 hours. And some days he would nap for 30 min and others for 2 hours. But knowing what order things were going to happen helped a lot.

Then teething started and I haven't gotten anything to work for us since.

Also, this is TOTALLY the wrong time of year to be trying to start a schedule. You are probably going to be going out a lot at different times for the next week or two.

Answer 4

My daughter is 10 weeks and with her after I brought her home in the day time I would have the tv on kinda loud and all the lights in the house on... when it got closer to night time I would turn every thang down that away when the lights were on she was more up and when it got quitier and darker she wouold calm down and get ready for bed... and try to give him a bath and lay him down for the night all around the same time... i understand it cant be at the same time every night but with in an hour or soo... and during the day play with the baby after feedings and play with him to keep him awake and intrested and at night when he wakes up to eat dont play with him dont turn the tv on... dont give him no reason to want to stay awake and everythang should fall in place...

Answer 5

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Try keeping awake as much as you can during the day...however, if baby is really tired, he/she will sleep! Start a calming bed time ritual such as music and a warm bath and take a walk either before or after (depending on the weather). This helped tremendously with my now 6 year old who sleeps like a pro!!! I intend to try the same method with the new baby, due in March.

Good luck! and be patient...it will happen!

Answer 6

Try getting him on a regular routine spanning 3 hours per cycle Length depends on how old and how often he needs to eat). In each cycle (again time depends on eating) they wake up crying to eat, feed him, play with him for about 30 minutes to tire him, let him play for another hour in the same room with you, prepare for bed and hopefully he will fall asleep in a 2 1/2 to 3 hour cycle. At night, skip the play time and put him back down immediately after eating and/or changing. Once the regularity kicks in he should start expecting and demanding the cycle. Eventually he should start sleeping all night by skipping one or more of the cycles at night. It worked pretty well for me.

Answer 7

well i know it sounds alittle out there but it worked for me. my mom told me if you do it for 5 days in a row it is a routine even if the first four days he does act like it is working by the fifth day it will. i started at 8 o'clock feed him give him a bath and then rock...i would put him down as soon as he fell asleep good and if he woke up i didnt get him out of the bed only gave him a pacifier and patted him back to sleep. i though it would have never worked but sure enough by that fifth day he was sleeping through the night. just make sure you do the exact same thing every night and i think it will work.

Answer 8

Try the book, "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to calm, connect, and communicate with your baby." and the follow up book, "The baby whisperer solves all your problems; By teaching you to ask the right questions."

They are written by a woman who was a professional nanny. I found them very helpful. (To bad I didn't know about them until my son was 4 months old.) I plan on implementing the strategies with my next child right away.

Answer 9

my mother showed me how to get my daughter on a schedule when she was 6 weeks old. she would give her baby cereal with her milk right before i gave her a bath and then she'd put on her night clothes and I'd rock her to sleep. she wouldn't get up because she was full and she didn't need anything else.

Answer 10

Lack of sleep in children can cause serious
health problems.If parents follow some simple
techniques for making their children sleep,
it can be avoided. I found useful information
at http://nosleep.in/sleepchildren.html