Schedules & Routines

albertabride06

When did you start a schedule with your preemie? I'm mostly wondering about bed times, naps, and when in the morning you get them up for the day.

Right now we let Dylan sleep beside one of us on the sofa during the day this is because as soon as we put him in his bassinet in our room he will wake up after 10 - 45 minutes but if we leave him on the sofa he will sleep for 2 - 3 hours.

He is 2 months old now (10 days adjusted) and I'm not sure if he is too young to start some sort of schedule or if we should keep letting him decide when to go to bed, nap, etc.

Rachel&Joe

we let stella do what she wants within reason.  she typically eats a couple of oz, stays awake for 30 minutes-an hour & then naps for a few hours, then repeat...  she is a really good baby.

jkipp82

Same here...DS dictates the schedule.  I don't know how you'd tell a 2 month old (3wk adj.)he can't eat when he's hungry or to eat when he's not, to sleep if he's wide awake or stay awake when he's fussing because he's tired.  However  - if anyone does - please let me know!!

MrsVeeVee

Rachel&Joe:

we let stella do what she wants within reason.  she typically eats a couple of oz, stays awake for 30 minutes-an hour & then naps for a few hours, then repeat...  she is a really good baby.

Pretty much this.  We let DS determine his schedule.  But for the most part he does have his own, even at age 2 months he had a pretty good one.

Now that he's 11 months, he still has a pretty good schedule.  I so wish I could change the fact that he's a morning person and such an early riser.  He wakes up around 7 am every morning, regardless of what time he goes to bed at nite.  Altho, for the most part he goes to bed between 7 and 8 pm.

mommamorris

try babywise... it's a book many of my friends have recommended... and i have yet to read, but agree with the concept.

i'm big on scheduling too. my daughter is 3 and a half, about 2 weeks adjusted. the best thing i've found that i can do to keep her on a schedule is make sure she gets full feeds. in the nicu she was on about an every 4 hours schedule. when she got home, i think because she just wanted the attachment,she would  nurse for 5 minutes at a time about every 30 minutes! needless to say, that wasn't working well for anyone! so, i just made sure she stayed awake to get a full feed. (on a bottle she takes about 140ml, nursing, is about 30 minutes... i discovered this after having her home a few days.) now she's back to an every 3-4 hour schedule, and we're happy as clams. as far as sleep/awake time, i just let her do her thing. she has wakeful times of day and sleeps most of the rest. (luckily the nicu prepared her day/night for us.

sweetpea18

We don't have a set schedule, but we do try to stick to a routine.  We started a bedtime routine around 2 months actual.  We do playtime, bath, bottle, book and then bed.  We try to have her in bed my 730 at the latest, but she's typically in bed at 7.  Bedtime is easy peasy.  We're still trying to figure out naps-she's a terrible napper!