Keep Your Babys Schedule Flexible
For most parents, a flexible eating and sleeping schedule is super-helpful. But the key word is flexible. If youre planning a 1pm nap, but your little one is exhausted at 12:30pm, its fine to bend the rules. Just feed your baby and put them down early. And if your bub gets hungry before their scheduled feeding time, try distracting them, but respond with promptness and love if the fussing persistsand return to the schedule later. Rigid and strict schedules where you never deviate even if your baby is crying with hunger are contrary to our natural instincts. It makes us constantly watch the clock and can lead to underfed babies.
How To Start A Bedtime Routine
Time is not a concept babies are born with. Newborns dont know that nights are for sleeping and days are for waking, so its perfectly normal for them to sleep in short bursts and wake every two to three hours to eat. Around six to eight weeks, they begin to develop their circadian rhythms and usually start sleeping for longer stretches of time at night. By the four month mark, most babies are physically and neurologically capable of going throughout the night without a feed .
Around this age, pick a time, say between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., to begin regularly putting baby down to bed for the night. One thing that makes it easier to stick with a regular nighttime routine is sticking with a regular daytime routine. So try to keep naps and feedings at regular times, and try using similar cues and patterns when putting your baby down for naps as you do for bedtime .
Why A Baby Bedtime Routine Is Important
Bedtime routines reinforce babies’ natural circadian rhythms, helping teach them the difference between day and night. Later on, a baby bedtime routine helps little ones to slow down and prepare mentally for bedtime.
A regular bedtime ritual creates a sense of comfort that can be especially helpful during trying sleep periods for you and your baby, such as when you’re sleep training or when your baby is going through a sleep regression.
A consistent sleep routine helps:
- Your baby fall asleep. A calming bedtime ritual that follows a predictable pattern every night gives your baby a heads-up that it’s time to wind down and prepare for sleep, which in turn helps him to nod off.
- Your baby stay asleep. Sleep regressions where babies have a hard time falling or staying asleep are normal throughout the first year and beyond. Having a bedtime routine in place offers comfort that can help your baby get through these phases.
- Your baby learn. Sleep is important for his development too. Getting quality Zzzs helps your baby consolidate the many lessons he learned during the day to memory.
- You to relax. A bedtime routine is a wonderful way to bond with your little one at the end of a long day, and it just might make evenings more relaxing for you too.
Sleep is undoubtedly one of the bigger challenges of your baby’s first year. But establishing a baby bedtime routine early on will help both you and your baby to sleep more soundly for years to come.
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Routines At 6+ Months
It is a pretty amazing feeling to be able to put your child down in their crib, walk out, and know that they will fall asleep quickly and easily, and wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. And everybody can attain this! It’s all about being consistent and having these routines in place for baby so that they know what to expect and that their sleep space is a safe place.
Are You Feeding Your Newborn Both Day And Night
If you have a cluster feeding newborn both day and night there are only a few likely alternatives.
- Milk supply is low and baby is starving.
- Baby is going through a growth spurt and is starving.
- Baby is only snacking and not taking full feeds or getting to the hindmilk rich in nutrients because he just takes a bit then stops.
The best way to help baby stop cluster feeding day and night is to determine which issue youre having.
If its milk supply then continue feeding until your supply is up or supplement with formula .
Alternatively, if baby is going through a growth spurt then theres nothing to do but wait it out and feed baby as much as possible to keep them full and get your supply up to meet the demand.
Use this simple printable chart to track your feeds to make sure baby is fed, your supply is up, and everyone is well.
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How To Set Up A Newborn Baby Routine Or Schedule
If youre looking for simple newborn baby routine tips to start at a young age, here are some basic ideas you can begin that might carry through to when your baby gets older.
Each bullet point is explained in more detail down below.
- Give him a bath before bed.
- Read him a bedtime story.
- Give him a soothing massage.
- Snuggle and rock him to sleep.
- Hum or sing a lullaby.
All About The Eat Play Sleep Baby Schedule
Some experts advise an eat, play, sleep baby schedule. The idea here is, when your little one wakes up from a nap or night sleep, you feed them, play with themthen when the time comes, put them down for sleep again. You continue with this pattern throughout the day. The hope is that having a little play time separating the eating from sleeping will help babies learn to fall asleep without a feeding when they wake at 2am.
While this sounds logical, the eat, play, sleep baby schedule actually goes against your babys biology. Infants get sleepy after feedings, no matter how much you prod and play with them. Also, before bedtime, you want to fill your little ones tummy to prolong their sleep!
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Sample Schedules For Kids
Below are sample schedules, which are a starting point for creating your own routine. These sample schedules may be perfect or it might require slight shifting for nap time 30 minutes earlier or later, lunch at noon instead of 11:30am, etc.
If you struggle with bedtimes, here are some suggestions to create a peaceful bedtime routine or helping your light sleeper become a better sleeper.
The most important thing is to be alert to your childrens moods and reactions to gauge how theyre responding to the schedule. Adjust as you need and try again until its right.
Finding the right routine may take a week of trying to shift until its just right, but will of course change again and again as your children grow, need less sleep, and can stay awake for longer periods of time.
BONUS:
What Should I Make For My Kids For Dinner
Lets start here.
I think were all under the impression that dinner needs to be this different, unique meal every single night.
We scroll looking for ideas and ultimately end up with long grocery lists , and then halfway through the week we end up swinging through the drive thru because our meal plan was too ambitious. Just another thing asking too much from our busy lives.
Or we have the exact opposite problem: too overwhelmed by ideas or trying to come up with new ones. No meal plan made, takeout or drive thru most nights .
Sound familiar?
As youve probably heard me say before, theres no need to reinvent the wheel.
Does your family love certain foods? Rice and beans, spaghetti, tacos, chicken tenders, breakfast foods, etc.?
Rather than overcomplicating your meal plan with all these new ideas, stick to the meals you *know* your family already likes to eat.
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Healthy Patterns Start With A Schedule Heres How And To Get Your Baby On A Regular Schedule
When I found out I was pregnant with our oldest daughter, Isla, I was filled with feelings of joy, excitement and fear all at the same time. Like most moms, I wanted what was best for my baby from the moment I received the incredible news. Building healthy habits in my little one was at the top of my priorities list. The problem was, I had no idea what to expect or how to navigate motherhood.
To better educate myself on the absolute BEST ways to instill healthy habits in babies, I read books, researched online, reached out to experienced moms and talked to pediatricians.
I began to notice a common theme: creating a routine for your baby to follow, especially in regards to sleep, is of the utmost importance.
When I heard the words routine and baby in the same sentence, it sounded like a ridiculous oxymoron, like a working vacation. But I couldnt dispute the profound evidence that showed just how important a schedule was, so I decided to give one of the most famous techniques, Babywise, a shot.
Establishing a routine took patience and persistence. There were days I felt utterly defeated and exhausted. There were more than a few times when I sat teary-eyed on the floor of our bedroom closet with the lights off, momentarily escaping the chaos of motherhood after putting Isla down for a nap. But, fast forward to today as a mother of two, I can personally attest to how vital creating a healthy routine for my children has been.
Baby Is Whiny Because Hes Hangry Hungry Or Snacking Too Much
This is a given.
In fact, with a whiny baby youve likely tried feeding a lot more and a lot more often, right?
Here are some basic rules of thumb related to baby feeding to take into account if youve got a whiny baby on your hands.
- Stop snacking | Babies need full feeds that get to the nutrient rich hind milk. 5 minute feeds here and 10 minute feeds there will make for a hungry baby. Imagine eating a few crackers every hour or two. Youd be irritable and not super hungry but not full or satisfied. Same with baby.
- Routines help set babys metabolism | If youre on a good routine then you dont have to guess why baby is whining. Youll know. My 5 kids would all start making noises within minutes of normal feeding times. No mystery to decode. It was obvious!
- Give enough milk and/or solids | At about 5 months of age babies start getting ready for solids and theyre hungry. Your supply might be lagging and youll need to feed more, and baby will need solid soon. After 6 months, if you have a whiny baby and they arent eating solids, thats why theyre whiny. Theyre hungry.
Read: Feeding Baby Until One Year of Age and How To Get Your Newborn To Sleep Well From Day One
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What Is A Good Routine For A Newborn
Even though you might want this to be a blanket answer, it really isnt. The reason for this is that all newborn babies differ from each other.
Besides, this doesnt mean that their schedules will be the same each day or night just because they all have simple needs.
Parents like us are the ones that are molding our newborns day-to-day schedules, so this shows that every babys timetable will vary in a way.
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Do Newborns Need A Routine
They do, but not in the same sense of you needing a routine. When theyre young, all they think about and know are to eat, sleep, and potty.
Thats it, literally.
So while you want to focus on a schedule, the routine you will need to zone in on will be to try to create some structure for those three things.
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Sample 4 Week Old Baby Sleep Schedule
- 4:30 am feed baby swaddled , put immediately back down to sleep
- 7:00 am wake up, feed unswaddled in well lit area, play time
- 8:15 am wind down routine, down for nap awake but drowsy
- 10:00 am wake up, full feed unswaddled, play/bathe/errands/ tummy time
- 12:45 pm wind down routine, down for nap
- 2:45 to 3:00 pm wake up, full feed, play/family time
- 4:15 pm down for nap
- 5:30 pm cluster feed, bath/family time / sit with family at dinner
- 6:30 pm cat nap
- 7:00 pm get baby up, wind down routine
- 7:30 pm cluster feed swaddled then immediately down for nap
- 9:30 pm to 10:00 pm feed again swaddled, put immediately down to sleep
- Feed at night as baby wakes up
How Do You Know When To Change The Newborn Routine
I almost always have to wake up the baby to feed it throughout the day. All four of mine were so sleepy they would either sleep until woken up, or awake at almost the exact time I normally feed them.
I kid you not when I say they will wake within minutes of the normal feeding time.
Their metabolisms are sort of trained to feed and sleep on the routine we make and they wake up happy!
I change schedules when the baby is able to be awake a lot more and is sleeping through the night.
Read: Cluster Feeding Newborns: The Dos & Donts
These lovely cards and checklists will help you create and keep healthy wind down and sleep routines for your little ones.
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Mac & Cheese + Fish Sticks
To be certain, I think macaroni and cheese is the favorite dinner in our house, but not homemade macaroni and cheese, just the kind from a box. Of course I prefer a really creamy, gooey homemade version, but like I said, kids are creatures of habit and they love the taste and texture of the boxed variety. This is probably my ultimate go-to meal: box of mac, fish sticks, and frozen mixed veggies.
How To Create A Daily Routine
Tracy Hoggs book, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, outlines the E.A.S.Y. routine, which helps you to juggle the needs of your baby and toddler. Her Eat, Activity, Sleep, You philosophy is easily adaptable to you and your baby. I usually had two-hour increments where my baby could stay awake, and I did fall into nursing him back to sleep, which was rough when I had a toddler who wanted attention.
The E.A.S.Y. method is a great place to start, and you can use it on a loop throughout your day. The routine below is a rough idea of how to structure your day that includes both your newborn and your toddler.
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Life With Little Ones Is Crazy And Sometimes The Best Youve Got Is Mac And Cheese And Daniel Tiger At 4 Pm And Then A Hot Meal To Yourself After Bedtime No Judgment Here
That being said, when you have kids of varying ages , you may find its a lot less work to make one meal that feeds everyone, when possible.
We used thebaby-led weaning method with our 3 girls, and especially with my 3rd baby I found it super helpful to just be able to feed her whatever the rest of us were eating.
Many of our family favorites are baby-friendly like spaghetti, taco meat, fish sticks, macaroni, etc. If Im making one of these meals homemade, I just leave out the salt, scoop out a portion for the baby and then season it later.
Read: Baby-Led Weaning at:
- Dont reinvent the wheel on meal ideas
- Favorite dinner ideas on rotation
- Encourage picky eaters at other mealtimes
- Family dinners when possible
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Do Babies Need A Schedule
I believe in baby schedules. Of course, a rigid baby schedule that ignores a babys cries and changing needs is unnatural. But following a flexible baby schedule that sets approximate timesand realistic expectationsfor feeding, sleep, and more can work quite well…and help bring peace to both Baby and parent.
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How A Baby Schedule Can Boost Sleep
Getting into a predictable daily rhythm has been shown to be good for Babys sleep. A study of breastfed babies featured in the journal Pediatrics found that two simple scheduling tweaks yielded a big improvement in sleep in the first two months:
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Scheduling hack #1: Implement a dream feed.Between 10pm and midnight each night, gently rouse your babywithout fully waking them upto feed them one more time before you turn in for the night.
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Scheduling hack #2: Responding to nighttime cries this way. When your baby wakes and cries in the middle of the night, always hold or change them a few minutes before feeding them.
Within three weeks, 100% of the breastfed babies studied were sleeping five-hour stretches with these two steps, versus 23% of infants where no scheduling was tried.
Tips And Things To Note:
- At night feed swaddled to communicate they should stay asleep and during the day unswaddle to feed which helps wake them up. This swaddle is breathable and you can change them at night without taking their arms out. Here are my best swaddling tips.
- Yawning, tugging ears, staring off into space, and eye rubbing are signs of tiredness, crying is usually a sign of overtiredness. Waiting until they cry to put them to sleep will likely result in a baby who cant get to sleep on their own
- Its okay to wake a sleeping baby during the day to feed them, really it is. Letting babies sleep long stretches during the day will not help in the day/night confusion issue.
Read: Want an Easy Baby? Then Use A Foolproof Baby Schedule
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