9 weeks - schedule (or lack thereof)

sasky · August 2014

Babies are 9 weeks old and we don't really have a schedule. This brought to you by the going-out thread in which people try not to go anywhere around the babies' schedule.

The one exception is bed time. We have a 4-year-old so we just piggy-back on his routine (bath, PJs, quiet time, bed). It generally works out fine. And they're sleeping well at night - asleep by 9-ish, both up once, awake for the day around 8.

During the day they sleep whenever and for however long, they eat whenever they're hungry (around every 3 hours depending on how long they sleep). I take them out almost every day just to get out of the house with no regard to timing. We just kinda go with the flow.

Should I be paying more attention to their nap/feeding schedules during the day to get them on a more structured schedule at this point? Or am I still in the figuring-it-out stage? Where were you at 9ish weeks?

carrotcake06 · August 2014

If it's working for you, then that's awesome. Go with it. A schedule didn't coalesce for us until closer to 3-4mo. I tandem fed on demand which usually, but not always, led to sleeping at the same time.

I tracked feedings for the first 3 mo so that I could "reinforce" patterns they established. I'm a big fan of on-demand, but I also tend to be a bit of a control freak, so I liked being able to look at past data to predict future patterns (if only babies were so predictable!)

ballygirl · August 2014

I wasn't able to really get on a good schedule until about 6 months. In the early months, their sleep patterns and needs seemed to change quite a bit and I fed and let them sleep as needed. Around 6 months they started sleeping better at night and their natural rhythms started to settle down and I noticed a pattern. (I charted their sleep patterns religiously to figure this out) They generally would get tired after being awake for about 2 hours, maybe a bit longer in the afternoon. At that point we started a loose 2-3-4 nap schedule. Basically, whatever time they woke up in the morning, they go down for a nap about 2 hours later, the next awake period was about 3 hours, and the last was 4-5 hours before bedtime. At that point I was able to start one-up-both-up and get their naps in synch. It was hard though and we still have days where I just can't get them to sleep together. All these books make it seem like a simple thing - its not. Don't feel bad if its not working. The first 4 - 6 months were just chaos for us. It was really hard and I always felt like I was not doing it right. They will settle into a pattern eventually.

RayRay007 · August 2014

With DD I always followed her lead. I did not decide that morning nap was at 9am, she did. If I knew she was likely to nap at 9am, I tried not to go any where until after that. That is what I mean when I talk about baby's schedule - their schedule.

chickaboo1974 · August 2014

My boys came home from NICU on a every 4 hour feeding (they were 17 days old). We just kept that schedule. I followed a eat, up for two hours, sleep for two hours, repeat .....kind of schedule. Made my life easier and allowed us to get out when they were cleared to go out in public (they were born in Nov- and we were concerned with RSV and Flu). I think this helped my boys learn to sleep and they STTN at 12 weeks actual. They have always been good sleepers- even today at almost 4- we don't take naps but we go to bed at 7:30 and get up at 7:30- 8

Brummy14 · August 2014

We didn't have a hard and fast schedule, either, for a while. You say they're 9 weeks -- were they term or early? That can also play a role.

Honestly, unless you have a reason to get them on a formal schedule (i.e, you'll be going back to work soon and they'll be in daycare and on a strict schedule, as an example), I'd say don't stress about it. I always let the girls dictate their needs -- length of nap and playtimes, and they generally did very will with that. We came home in January, and didn't go anywhere for months and months thanks to flu season, and when I went back to work, a nanny & my parents alternated days watching the girls -- and I think they appreciated having the freedom to slightly adjust the girls' schedule to best suit their own preferences, too.

That said, they kind of fell into a routine on their own as a result. I don't remember when that actually happened -- probably when we got down to two naps pretty routinely. Bedtime was always roughly the same time (for our own sanity).

whitehousem · August 2014

At 9 weeks we had the bedtime routine down for a few weeks (7ish) and I was swaddling and putting them in their swings for naps around 1ish when my two-year old was napping (started this super early for my own sanity). Their other naps were just kind of anytime they were tired. At 12 weeks they started STTN and I also started a morning nap around 9am or somewhere between 1.5-2hrs after they wake up. Naps are now in their cribs rather than the swings (unless I'm having trouble getting one of them to sleep. They are 14w now and here is our schedule:
7ish wake and feed
9ish morning nap
11/11:30 wake and feed
(Then we try to rush out and do something for the day)
1pm put my 2yr old down and try to get the twins to eat a little more
1:30ish afternoon nap
Between 4&5pm wake and feed
7pm bedtime for toddler and try to feed twins more and put them to bed
10:30pm we wake them and feed them quietly, low lights, then back to bed til morning

It's def hard to get out of the house now that we have scheduled naps but i just have to get myself and everything ready while they are sleeping so we can go as soon as they wake and eat. If we are a little off schedule that's ok, but usually stay within 30-45min of schedule.

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9 weeks - schedule (or lack thereof)

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