Schedules

[krichar]

Here is something I have been wondering... When and how should I put my baby on a schedule? He is 8weeks old and up until now we are sort of just flying by the seat of our pants. I am nursing him so I just feed him when he is hungry (every 2 hours during the day and every 2-3.5 at night). We go to bed when he is ready and have no routine what so ever! I just feel he may need some sort of routine as he is quite cranky most of the time and some set feedings and nap times may help... Any advice would be appreciated

[Verysoon]

Hey there, not sure if you have settled into a routine yet. But this is what we do for Rylan. Every night he is in bed by 8-9p depending on when his last nap was. He gets a bath or wiped down, followed by a story of some kind, and a bottle. He's out in 20 mins or less. He will sleep until 530/6a, eat again and sleep until 930ish. We've been doing that since he was about 1.5 months....which is also around the time I stopped BF.

As far as daily naps we are still working on those. He was napping well and now he's cat napping. He normally goes to sleep about 1.5 hours after he eats unless he is reallly sleepy.  I just tried "cry it out" for the first time today. I only lasted 6 mins lol. But they say do it for 20mins over 3 days and it should work fine. Let me know if you have any tips on daily napping. He is almost 4 months old.

[Heatherm4]

As a nursing mother, it's very difficult to put a baby on a schedule. If I were you, I would feed on demand but if you are worried about a sleep schedule. Make a time and put them down. I would always put my son down when he was pretty small when I went to bed at like 10pm. But then it's almost like he started putting himself on his own schedule and started going to bed at about 7pm. I completely followed him and it turns out that he's a short napper during the day too. He has a nap at 9am for an hour. Then at 12pm for an hour, sometimes more. Then when he really needs it he will nap again around 3:30pm.
Your baby is only 8 weeks though, it's just too young for anything too set in stone just yet! Congrats on your baby.