what does your baby's schedule look like?

[atinygiraffe]

Posting from my phone, so forgive the errors

My 8 mo old seeps teribly and doesnt nap. According to the no-cry sleep solution, i need to get hwr on a schedule, but I have no idea how to go about it.

Please show me your baby scedules so i can get an idea

Also, in order to start her on a scjedule, do I have to give up our breastfeeding group, mommy group, storytime etc because they are not all at the same imes everyday?

Any advice you can give me is welcome. I need it!

Thanks!

[annekh23]

You have to find a balance, if you have activities that are at wildly varying times it can be tricky, but if all activities are in the morning but at varying times you can usually work around them.

To be honest, my 7.5mth isn't keen on any kind of schedule, despite the fact that she has one imposed on her by having school age siblings.

[wombatclay]

Heyla and welcome to MDC!

As you read through the NCSS you'll find that while she is fond of schedules (to make sure your babe is getting enough sleep during a 24 hour period) she isn't talking about the sort of strict "from this time to this time" type schedule. SO no... you don't need to give up your daily or weekly activities just because they happen at different times! Instead, be responsive to your child and consider ways in which you can tend to their needs during the course of the day. For example, if you know your child is often sleepy in the early afternoon consider wearing her in a sling if you have an outing around that time. That way she can sleep if she wants!

Anyway, a predictable rhythm is often comforting for children. But it's more of a "first we do this, then we do that, then this happens" type thing rather than an "at 9:15 we X, at 10:00 we Y, then at 10:30 we sleep". You'll drive yourself crazy trying to maintain that sort of schedule. But if you really observe your kiddo for a few days (when is she hungry, sleepy, social, fussy, etc) you'll prorbably get a good idea of what your unique organic schedule looks like... and from there you can adjust bits of it to make sure you're all happy.

Good luck!
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May not help, but with 5mo ds...

DD1 has preschool at 9am. So we have to be up and out of the house by then. During the day we have a variety of activities I take dd2 to and obviously ds comes as well. He is often in the ergo and nurses/naps at will. In the afternoon I pick up dd1, and the four of us go home. DS plays, the girls play, I make dinner. After dinner ds has a bath, then slather on lotion, into jammies, and nursed almost asleep. DH holds ds and soothes him all the way to sleep while I put the girls to bed. DS sleeps in DH's arms while we relax, ds wakes around 11pm and we go to bed... I nurse him back out. He usually wakes again at 2am and 6am and I nurse him out each time. At 7:30 I get up and the whole thing repeats.
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[odoole]

After the holidays It became apparant tha DS desperately needs a schedule - just going with the flow was leaving him sleep deprived once he started becom more engaged in the world and not just falling asleep when he's tired.

I logged his sleep/wake times for about a week of low-key time at the home (made sure not to go out with him or stimulate him too much so he could decide his own rhythm.) Then I modeled our schedule based on what he was already doing. Turns out he was pretty closely following the 2-3-4 nap schedule but with an extra nap in the evening. So he sleeps from about 8:30 to 7:30 then naps 9:30-10:30 then 1:30-3:30 and a third nap of variable length starting at 5:30.

Of course it doesn't always work out that way, but I find having a schedule at least keeps me atuned to what he should be doing and if we miss out on a nap or cut short on night sleep, I can see the effects on his personality.

[birthangeldoula]

DD is almost 10 months old and our schedule kind of follows this pattern:

8 a.m. wakeup time. (she wakes between 8 and 9 a.m)

9:30 breakfast

10:00 milkies

play play play (possibly a small nap in the somewhere depending on wake time)

1:00 p.m. lunch time

1:30 p.m. milkies

2ish naptime (usually falls asleep right after milkies)

wakes around 4-5 p.m.

5ish p.m. milkies and snack

6:00 p.m. dinner

7:30 p.m. get ready for bed (bath, massage, storytime)

8:00 p.m. milkies and put in bed

She normally sleeps from 8ish p.m. to 8ish a.m. and has recently given up her nighttime feedings.

[JMJ]

We have only a very loose schedule. DD is 9.5 months and in the process of changing her schedule, so we're going with the flow ATM, but until a couple weeks ago, she was pretty consistently napping around 11 or 12 and around 3 or 5. If the morning nap was short, I would try to be home for the afternoon nap so she can nap without distractions. If the morning nap was over an hour or 2, I wouldn't worry much about the afternoon nap, and I'd figure that she would nap in the car or the sling someplace along our errands. We go to bed at 9, and she plays for a while before going to sleep around 9:30 or 10 and then sleeps (with lots of nursing) until 7 or 9 in the morning.

I tend to schedule things for the morning since I know that if her morning nap gets messed up, she'll just make up for it in the afternoon. We're gone for church from 9:30-12 on Sunday, a music class from 8:45-10:15 another day, a mom and baby group from 10-12:15 another day, LLL meetings from 10-12:15 some days, and we're thinking of adding more activities. If she's tired, she'll fall asleep while we're at these activities or in the car on the way home. If not, we'll make it up in the afteroon, but I tend to not schedule comittments from between about noon and 6 PM, not that I don't get out of the house then. I just want the flexibility to play that part of the day by ear.

Don't get so strict with your schedule that you can't allow for changes. Babies change a lot in a short time. Until last week, DD had been on a pretty nice 2 nap schedule. Last week, it was 3 naps a day, and this week it's 1!

[claddaghmom]

I don't do schedules, but I do pay attention to and follow cues. DD's internal clock tends to go like this:

9am wake up, eat, play...

noon- 1hr nap, nursing, playing, etc

3pm snack

6pm dinner, 1/2hr nap

9pm snack

11pm bedtime

1-2am nursing


I do not schedule her nursing or her solid intake...what I have typed is just a general picture of when she asks for food. We had to cut her evening nap b/c it was causing her to fall asleep after dinner and stay up super late.