Brides Helping Brides ™ - At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

soon2bMrs Posted: May 11, 2005 08:22 AM

At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

I was wondering at what age did your baby start to be on somewhat of a schedule? Alex is 6 weeks old and I was wondering if this is too early for a routine. I started an evening routine of feed, bath, relax and then bed but during the day there is no order. He will fall asleep while eating and sleep for 2 hours straight and other times he will be up for hour or so after a feed and then nap. I would love to get him to sleep less during the day or at least have regular naps so that he will sleep longer at night. Last night he fed at 6:30 then he went to bed around 8 and slept until 1:30 before he woke up for a feed. I would like to try and get him to eat round 10 or 11 and hopefully sleep until 5 or 6. Any sugguestions, or am I being unrealistic????

NovemberSue Posted: May 11, 2005 08:23 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

I think that is very young to try to get a schedule going. I think once a baby is sleeping through the night and is several months old, you can try and get a schedule going. (You mean a sleep schedule,right?)

Calla Posted: May 11, 2005 08:30 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

I don't think you can expect the baby to start learning a schedule until 3-4 months.

soon2bMrs Posted: May 11, 2005 08:33 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

Posted by NovemberSue

(You mean a sleep schedule,right?)

Yes, I would like to have him sleep through the night. He will go 5 or 6 hours in the evening without waking for a feed, I guess I am trying to get those hours to be from 11pm to 5 or 6 rather than from 8pm to 1am.

NovemberSue Posted: May 11, 2005 08:35 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

Your baby is too young for that. Right now your baby calls the shots. It will get better but its hard to tell exactly when. Every baby is different. My baby started sleeping through the night at 3 months but we have friends who have a baby that is almost a year and still wakes up twice a night for a bottle.

soon2bMrs Posted: May 11, 2005 08:48 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

Posted by NovemberSue

Your baby is too young for that. Right now your baby calls the shots. It will get better but its hard to tell exactly when. Every baby is different. My baby started sleeping through the night at 3 months but we have friends who have a baby that is almost a year and still wakes up twice a night for a bottle.

Thank you for the advice, I guess I spend to much time reading about how to parent, that I should just do what comes naturally. Overall, he is a good sleeper so hopefully he will develop a scheudle sooner rather than later. I don't know if I could handle not be able to sleep through the night for a year

sha11209 Posted: May 11, 2005 09:02 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

I'm sorry, but I disagree with the advice given so far. My Dr said that babies learn what they are taught. The earlier you introduce a schedule the sooner they pick it up. My son started sleeping through the night @ about 8 weeks and we called the shots. We stuck to a schedule of bath/bottle/bed.....He would take his last nap from about 4-8pm.
We would just keep him active from about 8-11 with playing and bathing and then give him a bottle or nurse at 12. It started that he would go from 12-4 w/o waking and then he just started sleeping longer and longer. Now at 8 months he goes from about 8-9pm until about 7-8am.
Good luck, it will get easier for you sleep wise!

Nikki10-12-03 Posted: May 11, 2005 09:13 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

Posted by sha11209

I'm sorry, but I disagree with the advice given so far. My Dr said that babies learn what they are taught. The earlier you introduce a schedule the sooner they pick it up. My son started sleeping through the night @ about 8 weeks and we called the shots. We stuck to a schedule of bath/bottle/bed.....He would take his last nap from about 4-8pm.
We would just keep him active from about 8-11 with playing and bathing and then give him a bottle or nurse at 12. It started that he would go from 12-4 w/o waking and then he just started sleeping longer and longer. Now at 8 months he goes from about 8-9pm until about 7-8am.
Good luck, it will get easier for you sleep wise!

I agree...our Dr. said the same thing. She told us we are incharge and we did the same thing with bath/bottle/bed (the 3 B's) and Gianna has been sleeping anywhere between 9 & 14 hours sice she is 7 weeks old.

soon2bMrs Posted: May 11, 2005 09:21 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

Posted by Nikki10/12/03

Posted by sha11209

I'm sorry, but I disagree with the advice given so far. My Dr said that babies learn what they are taught. The earlier you introduce a schedule the sooner they pick it up. My son started sleeping through the night @ about 8 weeks and we called the shots. We stuck to a schedule of bath/bottle/bed.....He would take his last nap from about 4-8pm.
We would just keep him active from about 8-11 with playing and bathing and then give him a bottle or nurse at 12. It started that he would go from 12-4 w/o waking and then he just started sleeping longer and longer. Now at 8 months he goes from about 8-9pm until about 7-8am.
Good luck, it will get easier for you sleep wise!

I agree...our Dr. said the same thing. She told us we are incharge and we did the same thing with bath/bottle/bed (the 3 B's) and Gianna has been sleeping anywhere between 9 & 14 hours sice she is 7 weeks old.

I have introduced an evening routine, I guess I should bump up time to a bath around 8 rather than 6 so that he will go to sleep a little later and sleep longer. My question now is how were your days? What kind of routine did you have?

Niecey Posted: May 11, 2005 09:23 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

We started a bedtime routine from the beginning based on his day feedings and our schedule. His last bottle is usually around 10ish and we do our routine and he falls right asleep and this bottle after a few weeks would alwys be the one where he would go the longest between feedings (at first only by an hour but steadily increased). Little by little the night bottle got longer and longer before he would wake to be fed but he basically called the shots. He is 3 mos and just started sleeping from 11pm-5/6ish and I am happy with that. No matter what I tried I can't get more than 7 hours straight from him. But now this week he took a huge step backward - urgh - waking up at 2 or 3ish! I don't think all babies do what they are taught - it really depends on the baby. As he sleeps more thru the night - he is up more in the day and now he started on his own his afternoon nap - he usually does it about the same time every day for 1-2 hours in the swing.

Nikki10-12-03 Posted: May 11, 2005 09:43 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

Posted by soon2bMrs

Posted by Nikki10/12/03

Posted by sha11209

I'm sorry, but I disagree with the advice given so far. My Dr said that babies learn what they are taught. The earlier you introduce a schedule the sooner they pick it up. My son started sleeping through the night @ about 8 weeks and we called the shots. We stuck to a schedule of bath/bottle/bed.....He would take his last nap from about 4-8pm.
We would just keep him active from about 8-11 with playing and bathing and then give him a bottle or nurse at 12. It started that he would go from 12-4 w/o waking and then he just started sleeping longer and longer. Now at 8 months he goes from about 8-9pm until about 7-8am.
Good luck, it will get easier for you sleep wise!

I agree...our Dr. said the same thing. She told us we are incharge and we did the same thing with bath/bottle/bed (the 3 B's) and Gianna has been sleeping anywhere between 9 & 14 hours sice she is 7 weeks old.

I have introduced an evening routine, I guess I should bump up time to a bath around 8 rather than 6 so that he will go to sleep a little later and sleep longer. My question now is how were your days? What kind of routine did you have?

Gianna still sleeps during the day we like to call them power naps...she will sleep for about 20 min at a time about 5 to 6 times a day...she is 3 months old so I hope she keeps it up

NovemberSue Posted: May 11, 2005 09:45 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

I disagree. You CAN'T expect a young baby to sleep through the night. They ARE going to wake up and cry when they are hungry and every baby is different. Now when they are older, you can definately get them on a schedule.

jpsgirl Posted: May 11, 2005 09:52 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

angela started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks....from 11:30 to 5am we were very lucky. As far an an actual schedule though, with eating and naps, that was more like 5 months. good luck!

sha11209 Posted: May 11, 2005 10:22 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

as far as what you can expect...I guess every child and every parent is different. I know what we expected and for us it worked. When my son got up at 4am in the beginning of starting our routine, we wouldn't turn on any lights or talk to him or play, we would feed him and put him back down. He figured out pretty soon that it was no fun to wake up if it was just to eat and not have interaction so he'd sleep longer and longer. As far as our day, that is when I let him call the shots early on. He would eat every 3-4 hours and nap in b/t. We probably started his day schedule at about 4-5 months. Now, he naps 2x a day at about 11am and at about 4pm

Curley999 Posted: May 11, 2005 10:40 AM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

I think every baby adapts differently. But for us Claire seemed to get into a routine around 3 months. But we still have some problems getting her to take her afternoon nap at the same time every day and she is 5 months now. .

iffer042373 Posted: May 11, 2005 12:22 PM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

My daughter was on a schedule right from the hospital the feeding and the sleeping. We kept that same schedule and it worked wonders for us. I thinkyou can get your baby on schedule during the day and most doctors I know will tell you to try to get your baby to stay awake moe during the day then the nite so they don't have the day nite reversal.

NovemberSue Posted: May 11, 2005 12:46 PM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

Yes, you definately have to get your baby to stay awake more during the day and sleep more at night.

2003OCT10 Posted: May 12, 2005 01:16 PM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

as soon as humanly possible.

You know your lil one... I put my son in a sched. from day one.. for the first couple of weeks it was crazy after about the 7th week he was in a almost perfect sched, with naptime being the variable... Not too shabby!!

Most people dont think a schedule works that young, I think if you try, it will. I also feel that it will condition your child for the future too.

My Alex is just over two and he's still on an awesome schedule. Good luck and keep trying, it will happen soon!

Jenn524 Posted: May 12, 2005 09:47 PM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

We had Kiera on a schedule right away, like when she was only a couple of weeks old. We never deprived her off food or sleep but we kept her on a routine. She was sleeping through the night (11-6:30) when she was a month old, which I totally contribute to her schedule.

Babies will do what they are taught. They will learn from you. If you want your baby on a schedule they will follow what you want. We didn't keep her up during the day but we didn't let her sleep the day away either. She would eat about every 3 hours, sometimes every 2 hours, never any more than 4 hours. I nursed her around 11 every night and eventually she stopped waking every 2-3 hours. And I swear that before she was a month old she was sleeping about 7 hours a night.

ddunne23 Posted: May 13, 2005 09:16 PM

Re: At what age did you try to introduce a schedule for your baby?

I totally agree with Jenn about teaching your baby what you want. Now, you can't be like Hitler with your schedule, more of a consistent day to day routine. Yes, it will vary greatly in the beginning and some days will be totally random, but for us, we put down the foundation early on and Jack was sleeping through the night, with no feedings at 4 months old. I mean if they wake up and need you, of course you tend to them. But I think a lot of moms get into the routine of 'well I guess this is what baby needs' when really it is 'this is all baby knows'. It becomes more of a habit than a need in terms of nightime feedings.

My neigbor has a 11 month old that still wakes up to eat once or twice during the night. I don't know her well enough to tell her this, but it is because she continues the behavior so that is what her son knows to be true. I don't want to come across as being harsh, but you need to teach your baby how the day will go once they are able to begin adapting to a loose schedule.