Schedule Advice

Katie Pittenger

I need help!! I try so hard to keep them on the every 3 hours but it seems to never fail that at least once a day they will get off. Then I'm spending the rest of the day trying to get them back on schedule for night time. I also have been having a hard time getting them to go down at night and when I have to feed them at 3 AM I will often be up until about 5:30. I don't know what I can do to make it better! TIA

DramaGirl06

I'm not exactly sure how old your LO's are.  There are so many variables and it's nearly impossible to keep them on an exact schedule.  I think it's best to have a routine down.  We like their last feeding of the day before we put them down to bed to be between 6-7pm.  Sometimes it works out, some days it doesn't.  We 'top off' at the last feeding so they are always down by 7pm.  Now, that being said, we didn't start a routine until about 3 months.

macchiatto

I also can't tell how old your LOs are (I can only see the top of your ticker, not the numbers) but I find a routine works better than an exact schedule. The important thing is trying to do the morning feed at right around the same time each day, but if it varies a bit from there, that's OK. For me the routine is kind of "give or take an hour." Like when my guys were on a 3-hour schedule, they ate roughly at 8a, 11a, 2p, 5p and 8p, then down for bed and they'd wake once or twice during the night to eat. But if they woke during the night at, say, 2a and 6a, they wouldn't be ready yet to eat at 8a so the next days' feeding schedule might get shifted to 9, 12, 3, and then I might try to squeeze the last two together a little to 5:30 and 8 so they don't go to bed too late.

Also, with the nighttime feeds, I had that problem sometimes, too. Are you keeping the feeding as boring as possible, very dim/minimal light, not talking or interacting with them, not making eye contact, etc.? I found that helped most of the time, though there were still nights they took a while to settle back down. Sometimes I would go ahead and put them back in the crib. They might fuss for a few minutes and if they started actually crying, I'd try to console/soothe them but often they'd just fall asleep.

Also, the DVD "Happiest Baby on the Block" has some great soothing techniques that might help for babies 0 to 3 or 4 months old.