3 week old- when to get into sleep schedule?

misgin1980 · October 2015

im wondering when you are supposed to start getting your baby into a schedule? My newborn so far in unpredicatable in terms of sleeping. He is usually awake in the mornings 9-11ish and evening 8-11 and usually asleep at night. I don't have a set time i put him to bed each night. My husband works nights and was on holidays this week so I would go to bed first around 10 and then he would around 2 and put our baby to bed. My husband is back to nights tonight and I am wondering what the best solution is for me to get extra sleep and if my baby should start having a routine?

jen83mn · October 2015

Our little guy is 6 weeks old and doesn't have a set schedule. We put him to bed between 10-11 at night (so I can feed him right before I go to bed). He wakes up once during the night for another feeding then goes back to bed. During the day, he usually takes a longer morning nap and a few shorter afternoon naps, but I let him sleep when he wants to sleep (waking him at least every 3 hours to eat if he doesn't wake on his own), and we keep him awake for at least 2 hours before bed so he sleeps at night. We probably won't try to introduce a sleep schedule until he's 3 months old and has a more predictable routine. Right now he's going through so many growth spurts that end up changing his sleep and eating habits on a day to day basis.

kanga915 · October 2015

Most sleep training methods involve letting baby cry it out, which I will not do for any length of time prior to six months.

jen83mn · October 2015

kanga915 said:
Most sleep training methods involve letting baby cry it out, which I will not do for any length of time prior to six months.

Ditto! I've been trying to lay baby down in his crib for his morning nap at least (rather than sleeping on me or in the swing, etc.), but I won't try any method that involves letting baby cry until 6 months.

jbettles · October 2015

I try to follow a routine myself and hope baby follows along. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, depending on if he is cluster feeding or sleeping all night (he's done both). I let baby drive our schedule as much as possible - sometimes it is hard with a 4 year old in preschool and a husband who is gone for work 4 am-6 pm every day, but we squeak by. It will be an adjustment once I head back to work in a couple weeks!

cmlsu · October 2015

I'm in the minority here, but I've put baby on our schedule as much as possible while watching her cues. I tracked her feedings and noticed she put herself on a loose schedule at night of eating at 10ish, 3ish and 7ish. Our pedi told us she could go 8 hours between feedings (she's 6 weeks old tomorrow), & advised to start controlled crying now. After her 1 month check up, we fed her, gave her a bath, did bedtime routine and put to bed awake, not drowsy. She cried for 8 minutes and went to sleep. Next night, cried for less than 5, next night and on no crying. After a week, no 3 am feeding. First night she cried forever and I broke down after 45 minutes. Next night she cried for 10, and last night she didn't cry at all and slept from 1015 to 7 am.
I know it doesn't work for everyone, and I'm in the minority, but she seems perfectly fine today and I'm a much happier mommy with a full nights sleep.

Edit to fix spelling and to add that I do go and soothe her periodically, it's been done under medical advice, and that she is perfectly happy. She slept again last night same stretch. I woke up and saw on the monitor she was awake and cooing at her normal 3 am feed that I had just stopped. It made me feel much better to see her awake and happy and fall back asleep by herself.

ForeverEverAfter · October 2015

There's really good general information on sleep in No Cry Sleep Solution. I just reread the newborn section to brush up. Ive got a loose routine for my 4w old. She nurses all evening, naps while I put my toddler to bed, then is up a bit while I read, we go to bed together around 10pm and she wakes 1-3 times overnight. I'm bedsharing and BFing, and keep diapers at the foot of the bed, so I barely wake up, and feel pretty rested by 7am when my toddler bursts in the door. Daytime I just go on her cues. With DD1 we did what we needed to get through each stage. By 1.5 she was sleeping 11h straight in a regular bed in her own room, and we never sleep trained.

rebeccabloomwood · October 2015

I don't let my babies cry. Just no. So any sort of schedule is led by them. I have a 2 year old who sleeps 12 hours a night and goes to bed on her own without ever making her cry herself to sleep.

AndieTessie · October 2015

LO is 4 weeks old and I just go by her schedule. I don't like the idea of crying it out and she's my first so really is my only main responsibility. I feed on demand and let her sleep when she wants unless I need to wake her to eat. She's going through so many growth spurts at this age that as soon as I think we have a routine she has a 5hr nursing session and it throws us off for a few days. It's hard because I feel like I get nothing done other than feeding her, but the housework can wait, baby can't.

thefuturemrsdaniel · October 2015

I have a loose night schedule for my 2 weeks old. After 4 I start watching the clock. I try to make sure he eats close to 7 and then close to 9. I then make sure to feed him at 11 which is when we go to bed. He wakes up close to 2 and then will usually wake up around 6. My first came home with a schedule given to him by the NICU so this was the first time I've had to do a schedule on my own so I'm pretty happy how it's worked out. I'll add that I did this mainly for my own sanity. If LO wakes up before these times I of course feed him but so far it's pretty close to those times when he wakes up.

meggipi5 · October 2015

This is one of those things where all babies are so different!

I think most resources will tell you that, if you want to, you can ease your baby into a schedule in the 6-8 week mark. It helps if you track when your baby eats and sleeps up until that point, then you can follow her cues to put her on a schedule. Putting a baby on a schedule doesn't automatically mean crying it out.

6-8 weeks is when a lot of babies transition to being able to hold more food in their tummy (depending on weight) and organize their waking and sleeping into larger chunks. By about 3-4 months, most babies are doing 3 naps a day.

DD2 is 7 weeks today, and I've been tracking her sleeping and eating for the past week. I've also been trying to hold her off to 2.5/3 hours between feeds (although I'll feed her at 2 if she's giving me the cues). At 8 weeks, my goal is to help her stick to a similar schedule each day. I really like Jo Frost's book (Confident baby care or something like that) for ideas of what you can expect and when.

ElleMF728 · October 2015

The first three months are really too little to do much except follow baby's lead, if you try to set baby to your schedule it will probably be unsuccessful leaving you with an overtired, fussy baby who now refuses to sleep at all. I do try to encourage one "good" nap around the same time my toddler naps just by doing a nap time routine for that one rather than just holding or wearing as I do for his others. It works some days, it doesn't work others, newborns need us to be flexible to meet their needs because they aren't developmentally capable of meeting ours.

MiromiM · October 2015

My baby has started to settle into her schedule at the end of week 4... you know just in time for another growth spurt to throw it off.

Day eating every 2-2.5 hours
Night eating every 2-4.5 hours
Bedtime 8:30-9

BecMac84 · October 2015

I have a semi schedule happening. We feed on average every 2 hrs during the day, have our last feed around 7:30pm he sleeps for 7 hrs has a quick feed around 2:30am then sleep again for another 3-4 hrs. I wake up every morning thankful for my good sleeper

monicaP · October 2015

DD is my third so she spends a fair amount of time dropping off and picking up the big kids therefore napping in her car seat during the day. This has not been helpful in establishing good sleep habits. We will get it down eventually though.

Jenten810 · October 2015

Creating a bedtime routine you do at the same time each day will help LO to establish more predictable sleep. As a mom who will be working outside the house, I've found the earlier you can start establishing the routine the easier it'll be when you go back to work. I started the bed routine week 2 with both of my kids. DS1 started STTN at 6 weeks, DS2 is well on his way at 4 weeks sleeping 5-6 stretches each night.

tlc11934 · October 2015

My DD2 started daycare at 13 weeks and they put her on their schedule so the rest fell into place. This baby seems fairly regular so far when she goes to bed at night (led by her) and when she wakes. The daytime is random.

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