How Do I Start a Scheduale

The baby sets the schedule. He will sleep a lot during the day and you need to nap with him as often as possible so when he wakes up during the night you are not losing too much sleep. This will also help you heal faster. Getting enough rest is hard enough with a newborn. Not napping is not such a great thing to do when you start having sleep deprivation stuff.

It doesn't matter if "you" decide that he's going to go to sleep at 8pm and he will wake up at 7am then take a nap at 10 am, 1pm, and 6pm. He will sleep when he's tired, be hungry when he's hungry, etc....just go with the flow and take a few notes if he starts going to sleep around the same time each day. That's when your schedule starts forming.

Our grand kids took a couple of naps per day until they were a year old. They took a long afternoon one then they took an evening one around 6pm. Then they went down for the night around 9pm. That is still there bedtime to this day but they don't take naps anymore.

Well when my kids were babies, I knew their cues... for tiredness or hunger.
As a baby, they get tired, need naps, and get hungry. So you do these things, routinely.

Nurse/feed him on demand.
Put him to nap, when you know he is tired.
Babies nap. They need to. Or they get over-tired and turn into a fussy mess.
Babies feed before sleeping, after sleeping, and throughout the day, 24/7, day and night.
And my kids, for the 1st year, they'd nap about 3 times a day. And go to bed just fine as well.

When my kids were babies, my day went around my kids naps. They were not portable nappers. Meaning, they would NOT nap on the go/in a stroller or in the car. They'd nap, ONLY at home, with quiet, and in their crib. So, I was home, at their nap times.

When a baby is young, they also get overly tired or overly stimulated very easily. So then they get fussy. So then that is a "cue" to let them nap and feed, etc.

But when they are teething, this wakes them up more, especially at night. So then, comfort baby, and it will pass.

Get the book "What To Expect The First Year" and 'What To Expect The Toddler Years."

Go by your baby's cues, and know your baby's cues.

You make up a schedule on your iPhone or I use Word and print it off and post it. Decide what you need to do and put it down. We usually have t change things up a bit to be realistic once I overbook myself. LOL Start on a Monday and give yourself a week of looking at the schedule before you implement it.

It depends on how old the baby is. If he is brand new, don't worry about a schedule. He will lead for now. Feed him when he is hungry, let him sleep when he is tired. Set one or two goals (one can be a shower) for yourself each day, and celebrate if you are able to accomplish them. If he is about six months old you can start to set a schedule. At that age baby no longer needs to eat on demand, he can start some solid foods, baby is down to two regular naps and it is a good time to start sleep training.

How old is your baby and what type of schedule are you looking for? Do you mean when should a newborn eat and sleep? This isn't really something you can schedule. Your baby may seem helpless and completely dependent, but what he does know is when he needs to eat and when he needs to sleep. You schedule the rest of your day around his needs. You can't set out how your day will go each day, because you can't schedule growth spurts, diaper blowouts, shorter than expected naps and an ear infection/fever.

You son is 5 months old now, is that right? He's gotten past the newborn stage and is probably napping twice a day or so. Or he is taking a lot of cat naps. If he is taking cat naps, that's probably harder on you and on him.

It's good to get a baby on a schedule, especially one your son's age. I had the help of daycare ladies when my children were babies, because I was working. We got up at 6:30 in the morning, fed them and put them in the car and dropped them at daycare. At 5 months old, I was giving them a bottle when they woke up (I had already weaned from breastfeeding by then) and they had just started cereal and banana baby food and I took that with me to daycare. They fed them there.

I mention daycare specifically because they taught me how helpful it was for children to have a schedule. I saw the schedule they kept for newborns all the way through the 5 year old room - indeed, I felt like they were my childrens' "other mommies" and I missed them a lot when I became a SAHM.

They fed the babies who were now on cereal (like mine) when they got there. I would write down what time I gave my baby a bottle before I left, so 3 hours later, they would feed my baby a bottle. In mid-morning, they would put the babies in their cribs (after a bottle) for their morning naps. In between naps and feeding, the babies were in the floor for tummy time and exposed to manipulative toys for their age set. They played music and showed them colorful books. They held them some too. They talked to them and sang to them as well.

Afternoon naptime was the same. They wrote down when they changed their diapers so that I knew how many wet and how many poopy diapers they had, and what time the last bottle was offered. That way I would know what time to give another bottle when I got home. At 5 months, I was giving a vegetable (baby food) and cereal when I arrived home and a bottle. Then between 8:30 and 9:00, another bottle for bedtime.

If the weather was nice, a few mornings a week the ladies would put the babies in a type of stroller (Bye Bye Buggie) and take them for a walk down the street. They also sat outside with them in the play yard enjoying good weather in the shade.

So, for you at home, my recommendation goes along the same vein as the daycare. You wake baby at the same time every morning, feed and dress him. Unlike at daycare where the ladies' sole job is caring for children, you have to do things like wash clothes, clean kitchen and take care of your house, and shop and run errands. So you put together your schedule based around what your child needs. He needs to be fed before you go out. You don't want to go out when your child is supposed to be napping, if you can help it. Best is after the morning nap, or after the afternoon nap. Always make sure baby has had something to eat before going out, too. A tired baby and a hungry baby is a fussy and crying baby...

Right now, you want to feed at the same time and nap at the same time everyday. You want to make jaunts out short. You want to be very organized about going out as well. Have your stuff together, preferably in the car so that you aren't running around like a chicken with your head cut off. I used to make lists and keep a list in a plastic bag in my baby bag. I did a spot check of my list regularly of what was in the bag to make sure I hadn't forgotten something important. I'd make all the bottles the night before and put them in the frig so that I wasn't having to make bottles while dealing with the baby. I'd just warm it up in the microwave (you have to be careful about that. Daycare used a crock pot to warm theirs in, which is great.)

After about a year or 14 to 15 months when they drop to one nap a day, it's easier to have more freedom in going out and doing things with babies. They become a lot more mobile. But it's still very important to keep a schedule with snacks and meals and nap being at the same time everyday. It's also when you have to redirect, redirect, redirect when baby wants to do things he isn't supposed to do and not allow little tantrums and such. Consistency is the key, along with schedules.

Hope this helps,
Dawn