Starting a schedule?

sarahmae8

I am just curious if any of you tried to start any kind of schedule with your 3 week old? I feed my DS on demand and let him sleep but last night he had me up every hour and a half and not necessarily because he was hungry. Needless to say I am tired! Any advice on how to curb that and if you have tried something that worked, please share. Thanks!

margeincharge2

At 3 weeks, your schedule is the baby's schedule. You're going to be tired. It sucks. At 3 weeks, I just stuck to feeding on demand, holding DS when he cried (letting him comfort suck or whatever), and I slept when he slept. Your LO will eventually start spacing out his feeds eventually. But at this stage, you just have to keep doing what you're doing.

KateLouise

My LO found her own routine.

By 2 weeks her nights were like clockwork and by four weeks both day and night were very regular.

Now she's sleeping 5 hours at a stretch over night so it's moving everything around during the day but she basically feeds every four hours.

I read and highly recommend the baby whisperer. 

If he's not waking for hunger, why is it that he's waking, do you think? 

Shanbo22

I have been so lucky. By the time my LO was 4 weeks I had him on a schedule. By 6 weeks he was sleeping through the night pretty much and by 10 weeks he has been sleep from like 9-7:30. They eventually will go on a schedule, some babies start sooner then others but dont worry, you will get there. I think I just got really really lucky!!

NotEve

I hate to say it but I agree with the first response.  Your schedule is the baby's schedule.  I tried (and failed) to set some sort of schedule and I wound up just being frustrated in addition to being exhausted.  You really just have to let go.

My LO is a little over a month now and still we don't have much of a schedule.  However, she does sleep roughly 5-7 hours each night now.

Trust me, it will get better!  

jenny1980

I think trying to put a 3 week old on a schedule is fighting a losing battle. As frustrating as it can be, he really may need to eat every hour or two at this time (and babies go through a growth spurt at 3 weeks, so the extra-frequent feedings could be part of that).

We just sort of followed DD's lead and over the last few weeks we've fallen into a nice routine. It will come--just try to enjoy this time as much as you can.

sapphire angel

Our DD sets most of the schedule but we have managed to slowly adjust it to be more friendly to us. SHe used to sleep very heavily between feedings from about 4 AM to noon. By trying to interact with her more in the late afternoons and evenings, she now sleeps pretty heavily from 10 PM to 8 AM. We still wake for 2-3 feedings but generally her night time naps have stretched out to 4-5 hours and daytimes have shortened to 2-3 hours.

Our evening routine: 6-7 pm starts with a bath, then short cuddle time to warm up again, bottle by 7:30 then she is usually awake for a while but may take a 1-2 hour nap. Bottle at about 9-10 then she starts 4-5 hour sleep periods waking only to eat and get diaper changes until about 8-9 AM. This is generally how our nights go but it's not extremely consistent (for example I am awake with a certain little someone who is fussy with gas this morning and will only settle down while in her swing).