When did your BF Baby get a 'schedule'?

darmca · June 2011

I see other people posting about a 7:00 feeding or asking what time you go to bed at and I wonder if these people are breastfeeding? LO is almost 3 weeks old and really has no schedule at all so far. He was clusterfeeding between 10-2AM or 3AM even and has recently moved that back to 9-12:30ish but has gone to bed at 9 and 10:45 as well this week. He has slept as long as 5.5 hours at night but tends to wake up every 2 or 3. We're just feeding on demand right now and while it seems to be every 2 hours or so, the actual times change based on when he went to bed/woke up etc.

Should there be some kind of routine/schedule by now? Should I be doing something to encourage it?

EJChapman123 · June 2011

I am pumping and feeding about 90% breastmilk to my baby - and the only "schedule" she has is that she sleeps quite well in the mornings... usually.

She eats when she is hungry. Sometimes its every 2 hours, sometimes every 4. Some nights she sleeps 2 four hour stretches, sometimes she doesnt fall asleep until 3am because she's fussy.

There is no schedule. We "try" to start sleeping usually around 11 or 12, but that just means we start taking shifts (with DH back to work on Monday, this might change soon)

So you are not alone! I was wondering the same thing...

MommaA117 · June 2011

only 2w 3d and we have no schedule whatsoever. Of course DH and I don't really either. His work hours range and sometimes we go to bed much later than others. She does sleep OK at night though in between feeds.

eta: I feed on demand and she cluster feeds at night before bed.

Army~Wife · June 2011

Our girls are 15 months apart and we learned with the oldest that if stick to a strick schedule that life is SOOOO much easier. We started Z (our youngest) on a schedule right away. I fed her every 3 hours on the dot. She got the hang of it right away. By 6 weeks I had her sleeping thru the night. The sleeping thru the night was just luck, IMO. It took our oldes until she was closer to 5 months to sleep thru the night. But, I do highly recommend a schedule and sticking to it.

Temp38995750004016 · June 2011

She's been on a schedule since day 1, and I exclusively BF. In the hospital the pedi said she needs to eat every 2.5 - 3 hours, she usually woke up within that time frame to eat and if she didn't I woke her up to feed her. Now, at 3 weeks, she naturally eats every 3 hours pretty much on the dot, I don't have to wake her anymore. Between midnight and 7 am, she will sometimes go 3.5 to 4.5 hours, I let her sleep if she will!

Usually, her eating + awake time is about an hour for each feeding, although lots of times at night she will go right back to sleep after eating. So I'm able to somewhat plan my day knowing that she's awake for an hour every 3 hours...so I have 2 hours to shower, run errands, etc.

I'm not sure if she naturally put herself on a schedule or if my feeding her that often so early put her on a schedule. Either way, I love it, even though I can't wait until she starts sleeping through the night!

ncbelle · June 2011

Never ;-) (referring to my older child)

I'm strongly in the "feed on demand" camp. Babies will fall more into a routine but if you force a schedule, you risk supply issues as babies are really good about knowing when and how much to nurse.

You can start to "set" a bedtime routine sort of thing although I think it works best to think of bedtime as a range instead of a set hour.

Luma88 · June 2011

I don't have a schedule. LO eats about every 2 hours during the day and his naps keep getting shorter as the weeks go by. He goes to bed every night between 8 and 10. And fully wakes up between 7 and 9. However, I feed on demand. Sometimes he will eat an hour after a feeding. He will let us know when he needs to eat, I think he would cry for an hour straight if I tried to keep him to a schedule.

hyperangel_8509 · June 2011

My LO is almost 3 months old, and she still isn't really on a schedule. She sleeps 6.5 hours a night now, but I always feed on demand. On average she goes 3-4 hours between feedings during the day, but every day the times are different.

Good Luck!

MissYouDietCoke · June 2011

DS is almost 13w old. There's no such thing as a schedule in our lives. His bedtime is the closest thing to "scheduled" as we can get, and that even has an hour of variability. (between 7-8p). he does sleep about an 8h stretch at night, though. He's pretty great.

He will set his own schedule when he's ready, and that might be 6 months from now.

RayRay007 · June 2011

I bf on demand (except for the first couple of days we woke her in the night to feed until she regained her birthweight) and by 4 wks she had developed a pretty reliable pattern. I didn't have any expectations though and was still really flexible though. I say she eats about every 2.5 hours during the day, but there are days she naps for four hours. Some days she's up at 5:30, some days it's 7:00. I just go with the flow. But yes, she does have some pretty consistent patterns.

RayRay007 · June 2011

RayRay007:
I bf on demand (except for the first couple of days we woke her in the night to feed until she regained her birthweight) and by 4 wks she had developed a pretty reliable pattern. I didn't have any expectations though and was still really flexible though. I say she eats about every 2.5 hours during the day, but there are days she naps for four hours. Some days she's up at 5:30, some days it's 7:00. I just go with the flow. But yes, she does have some pretty consistent patterns.

ETA: as far as encouraging a pattern, I don't have any advice. I just followed her lead and it worked out well, but we might just be lucky.

kg_08 · June 2011

When DD was about 3 weeks old we tried to always have her on a consistent bed time, but BF was still all over the place. I think she was maybe 4 months old before I realized she had gotten herself on a pretty set schedule. Then it changed with growth spurts, then changed again as she started eating more solids, and now weaning.

labooshki · June 2011

We're still not on a schedule, but more of a routine. I know how many times he's most likely going to eat in a day and I know it's going to be every 2-3 hours. I do put him to bed at the same time every night regardless of the last feeding. Your baby is so young, don't worry about schedules!

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