schedule...

JenbenIU

I feel completely lost.  Eli isn't on a very strict schedule and I think it's really starting to mess with him.  For the most part he's predictable.  He functions in eat, play, sleep cycles, but I think he's getting over-tired and isn't napping well for us.  No naps=grouchy baby.    He has really started to fight his naps even though he can barely keep his eyes open.

I feed on demand so for the most part I don't feed him every x number of hours like I did the first couple of months.  I just follow his cues now.  I feel like this is working out fine but I don't know if it is really the best option or not when trying to maintain a schedule.

Hey typically goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 every night.  And if he doesn't have to go to the sitter in the morning he will usually wake up around 8.

Help!

lemen99

I don't have the answers yet, but our friends who have triplets highly recommended this book.

Our copy just came in the mail and it looks amazing. (I just skimmed it and just started reading.)  It talks a lot about schedules and optimizing, etc.

One thing I've found with Andrew is that if I wait to put him to bed when he's tired, he won't fall asleep. If I put him to bed when he appears happy/alert, he'll put himself to sleep no problem.  By the time I can note any tired cues, for him at least, it's too late and he'll fight the sleep.

eclaires

We did a pretty loose routine with Jackson based on eat-play-sleep, but I made sure that those cycles were shorter than 2 hours.  Usually about 1-1.5 hours, because once he was overtired, game over.

One thing I took away from the book Kathy posted was that - babies typically need to sleep every two hours.  Sleep begets sleep and to put them down before they are really showing tired signs.

By the time he was around 4 months old, he'd fallen into a schedule - up around 8-8:30, nap at 10-10:30, up around noon, nap around 1:30-2.  Up around 4 or so, another nap around 6 for about an hour if he needed it, bedtime at 8:30.  He dropped the third nap around 7 months old.  bottles were at 8:30, 12:30, 4:30 and 8.

Jess&Ken05/13

Parker's "schedule" is VERY similar to the one Beth posted, give or take a half hour here and there.  We started the eat-play-sleep with Parker around the 3 month mark and were shocked at how much his mood improved!  I would estimate he cries 30-60 minutes a day now... usually when we are getting close to the 2 hour mark for sleep. 

indybride4.8.06

Ditto eclaires.  Haley pretty much fell into the same routine, except she was about an hour earlier than Jackson's schedule.