Schedule Idea for Two Week Old

We have four children. None of our children were on a schedule at 2 weeks. They eventually develop their own schedule of when they eat and sleep. Just relax the baby will eventually be on a schedule that meets their needs.

Babies will fall into their own schedules. If you pay attention to their signs for hunger (chewing on hands, rooting) or being tired (yawning, looking away) BEFORE they start crying then you'll be way ahead of the game. You can do some guiding to try to encourage a schedule that works a little more to your desired schedule, but all babies are so different, it's best to work with them than against them. My oldest was very routine, by a few months old he was ready for a nap 2 hours from the time he woke and if I tried to vary it we both paid dearly. My second was much more flexible with his napping (but not eating) and had less of a schedule. I just followed his cues and as long as I was paying attention and didn't wait too long to respond, he ate and slept very well. I haven't read any sleep books that I would recommend, however I hear that the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley is excellent. Now might be a great time to start reading books and getting ideas since you have a little while before he'll be ready for much routine :)

As some of the others have said, you have to let him find his own schedule. In a few more weeks you'll realize that he has started waking at around the same time for feedings during the day and night. Then you'll notice that he is awake and asleep for a certain amount of time between feedings. Only then can you start planning stuff around his schedule. You have to let him teach you when he needs what. Its all part of getting to know your new baby. Some babies are harder to get to know than others. My first, I knew his cries and needs in just a few weeks. My second took me 3 months to figure out. Now at 4yrs my oldest is still an open book to everyone he meets. My 11 mth old refused to let any one else hold him until he was 8mths.

My daughter set her own schedule by about 3 weeks old. I took detailed notes the first weeks of her life on when she ate, how long, how well. (I carried a little notepad around everywhere and it was SO WORTH IT!) By two months, I knew (to the minute) when she would wake and be hungry- barring growth spurts.
I did what made sense to me. When I wake up, I'm hungry. When I wake from a nap, I'm hungry. So I didn't feed her to sleep. She'd wake, I'd feed her. She'd be up for a bit, then ready to nap... over and over again all day long.
I believe every baby has their own routine. It's up to us to listen to them and not set arbitrary schedules.

T.,
Congratulations on your beautiful new baby! If you're a first time mom, I know this is a very challenging time for you. Many first time moms turn to books to give them a sense of self confidence, to help them feel that they finally "know what they're doing." Sadly some of these books encourage things that are not healthy for babies. Scheduling is one of those things. You also don't say if your are breast feeding or bottle feeding. Here's a reference for your consideration, including an opinion for the American Academy of Pediatrics:

"What you can do: The international consensus
Although feeding practices vary worldwide, the international medical establishment is in general agreement. These recommendations are endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO 1998), La Leche League, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (Work Group on Breastfeeding 1997):
Feed frequently
Newborns get more to eat and gain more weight when they are fed at least 8-12 times a day.
Feed whenever your baby shows signs of hunger
Remember that each newborn is different. Some may be fine with feeding every two hours. Others may want (and need) to nurse every 30 minutes. Be sensitive to your baby’s hunger cues. These include

• Rooting (searching for a breast)

• Hand-sucking and hand-to-mouth movements

• Increased alertness or restlessness

Don’t wait for your newborn to cry. Crying is a very late sign of hunger, and once a newborn begins crying it may take time for him to settle down and feed.
Don't restrict time at the breast (or bottle)
This may prevent your baby from taking in enough calories. If you’re breastfeeding, a strictly timed newborn feeding schedule may also deprive your baby of high-fat hind milk.

Wake a sleeping baby if she's overdue for a feeding
The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents to awaken sleeping newborns if they haven’t fed for four hours or more. Waking a baby might sound like a bad idea, but it’s a common practice in Non-Western cultures (Worthman and Melby 2002)."

The bottom line is, your baby has probably already begun to develop his own schedule. Are you keeping record of when he eats, how much, etc.? If you do that, you'll see that he's starting to develop his own "pattern."

Your new boy needs so much nourishment right now, he's like a little bird, with his belly only the size of his tiny fist. This is why he eats often. He assimilates his food quickly and sleeps so much because he's spending his nourishment on growth and development.

Hold him, love him up, feed him whenever he's hungry, and let his schedule develop naturally. As my mom used to say when mine were young, "Put down the book and pick up the baby."

You cannot spoil him by giving him too much love. There is no such thing. My grown kids are proof of that. They are the kind of people everyone wants in their lives.

Good luck, and God Bless,
C

I hae an 11 days old and the same concerns. I am currently only giving her 2oz every 2-3 hrs during the day and 3 oz at night. This is helpful with the day/night mixup. As your baby grows he will eat more in daytime and then increase at night. Wake him at regular intervals and be consistent with time and you should have no problems. My five year old was sleeping at 3weeks all night and on schedule all day with this method.

I know that you have received a lot of responses, but I wanted to add mine. Schedule away! I live on a schedule and I bet you do to. So why should we expect differently for a baby? At two weeks he should be eating at least 8 times in a 24 hour period. That's roughly every 2-3 hours from the beginning of one feeding the the beginning of the next. Make sure he nurses for at least 10 minutes EACH side or is taking a full bottle (around 3-4 ounces). After a feeding change his diaper and keep him awake for 10-15 minutes before putting him back to sleep. Keep that routine going and you will be on your way. Also, please use your head. God made us intelligent beings. If your baby seems hungery and it hasn't been 2 hours go ahead and feed him. But also be aware that babies cry for reasons other than hunger. It could be gas, a wet diaper, temperature or sleepiness. I say good luck and go for it!

Personally I focused only on meeting my baby's needs until she was a few months old. At such a young age they need to get a sense of security that their needs are being met. Pick them up, hold them, feed them, let them know you are there for them. The books that I read all said to not worry about sleeping schedules until at least 2 months. Then what we did was let her put herself to sleep (i.e. lay her down drowsy but awake) at least 1/day so she could learn how to put herself to sleep. The book "Good night, sleep tight" was most useful for us. However sleeping patterns go in cycles and we have drawn from multiple books in the past as we went through rough patches. She is 19 months and we have a great thing going right now with her sleeping skills and schedule. It did take work at times!!

By the way - I never woke her at night on purpose! If she slept through a feeding, then so be it... as long as she continued to gain weight. They catch up during the day. Makes for a busy day if you are nursing, but getting sleep at night is so so precious!

Somebody gave me The Baby Whisperer when I was pregnant and I wish I'd read it right then, instead of weeks after he was born when I was at my wit's end!!! It worked WONDERS for my baby.... It's a very loose schedule, but structured enough to make life easier for both of us (and he taught himself to sleep through the night when he was a month and a half--BLISS!). On the other hand, I have a friend who read it before her son was born, and was all set on implementing it with him, but he absolutely refused a schedule altogether. So I'd say there's no harm in giving it a shot, and if it works, great! If, not, you'll figure something out along the way. :) God bless!

Yes, I used The Baby Whisperer method (E.A.S.Y.) on all three of my children and I think it saved my life! I didn't get the book until my first child was 5 months old. Until then, I just nursed her every time she cried. I never knew why she was crying. I also just assumed that she would fall asleep if she was tired. With the EASY method, you know what your baby needs. I would HIGHLY recommend using it.
Good luck!
R.

Hi T.,
When my son was born I tried the let him get his own sleep and eat schedule... Well lets just say the sleep didn't work but eating he did himself. I waited until he was almost 2 months old until he was actually on a sleep routine. The hardest thing was me getting adjusted to it. I simply just started putting him to bed at 8pm and then waited to see what time he would get up in the mornings and I just met him in the middle on the times witch was 7am. So now wether he is up or not I get him up at 7 and we eat our breakfast and then by 10 he is ready for a nap and then the next nap is usually around 4 and then bed at 8. Hope this helps Good LUCK!

Hi T.,
I also read and used the Baby Whisperer book as a basis for our schedule with my now one year old daughter. I think I read it and started using it when she was around 4 or 5 months. I used it as a basis, but I did not follow it strictly, just basically used it as a guide for our schedule. I never really did the pick up/put down thing for sleeping. I have always done a schedule and bedtime routine with our daughter and have found it to be a very good thing. Our bedtime routine is bath, jammies, brush teeth, read books (we always read 3 and always the last book is the same every night, but the first 2 are different), say prayers.

It has evolved and changed as she gets older, I think when she was that young we did: jammies, feeding, read books, prayers.

Hope this was helpful. Good luck and Congratulations.

Just wanted to add that we kept my daughter in a cradle next to our bed until she was 6 months old. I nursed her and when she was that young I think she ate every couple of hours. She did not sleep through the night until she was quite a bit older (I'm thinking 10 months or so).

Two weeks is way to young to start a "schedule". I personally didn't like the Baby Whisperer book, but starting around 8 weeks old whenever everything starts to settle down, then start to "schedule" YOURSELF to help him to get into a routine. DON'T schedule him, he's just a baby, he needs you to help guide him, not the other way around. Which is what most moms do as a mistake. READ the book The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley and that will help you out for sure! Good luck, enjoy these crazy few weeks, go to him when he's upset, hold him, swaddle him, carry him in a carrier/sling and enjoy him being so small! They grow up fast and to get him into a routine now will drive you both up the wall. FOLLOW HIM, not a book's recommendations on when/how things should be. Good Luck!
A. B

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T.,
It is not too early, but perfect timing. We discovered the book, On Becoming Babywise and have used with all three of our children. Our newest was sleeping through the night within a month with their cycle. Basically the whole thing revolves around this cycle: eat, awake time, nap; eat, awake time, nap...over and over and the book tells you when to skip the awake time (ie night time :)) and tells you when to start aiming for longer naps, etc. It is wonderful!! Hope this helps. Love, M.

I never had any sort of scheduling for either of my kids, and while both my kids only woke up in the middle of the night to nurse and went right back to sleep, my older son woke up less in the middle of the night than my younger son. My baby woke up more frequently and he took a lot longer to sleep through the night. I think personality and individuality has a lot to do with it.

FWIW, strict eating/sleeping schedules are not for newborns. With my kids, as they reached about 4-6 months (varies w/each child) we would work to start becoming more regular and predictable with these activities. I read most of the books out there and found "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" worked really well for my family.

One aspect in particular that has played a huge part in my children's well being was a REGULAR early bedtime. It was healthy for them and for my husband & I. The one phrase in the book that kept going through my mind when people would challenge our kids early bedtime was "It's not logical, it's biological."

Soapbox moment here: I fully believe the recent studies which connect lack of sleep with obesity, hyperactivity, and poor performance in school in children. In my family we work very hard to ensure that my 6 yr old still gets 11 hours of sleep at night and my 8 & 10 yr olds get 10 hours. We do have occasions when they are up later and are a tiny bit more relaxed on weekends; but those are pretty rare exceptions. As with anything, kids do better when they know what is expected of them and what to expect from us.

Best wishes with your new baby! Enjoy your "babymoon" and eat up all those precious "I'm so happy to see you mommy!" smiles when your baby wakes up. It just doesn't get better than that!!

personally I think you should let them set their own schedule and once you see how that goes, you tweek it. I always let my children eat about every 2-3 hours and then nap after about 3 hours, you will notice when they are ready to eat, ready to nap, ready to NOT nap, etc then you get your own schedule and change it a little here and a little there.

W.

you should not be trying to 'schedule' a newborn. They eat and sleep on demand. When they approach 4 months old, a schedule will evolve on it's own. THE best book I can recommend out there is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. I recommend the book only as a source for understanding sleep. He tends to lean towards the 'cry it out method', which I don't, but the knowledge gained on sleep and how it develops is invaluable. The best tip from this book is the fact that infants cannot tolerate being awake for more than two hours at a time. Obviously, this time frame lengthens as they grow older, but understanding that concept, which seems crazy that a baby would need to be back asleep for a nap after 1 1/2 to 2 hours, but it is true. Get this book.

T.,

That book worked well for me. Then my daughter turned 2 and the 'night terrors' started. For some children they get over those easily too. Howcver, my daughter isn't one of them. Mainly because we moved into a house when she was 3 and my stepdaughter, her husband and 3 children moved in with us temporarily. Well, my soninlaw terrified my daughter by making the situation worse. She is now 7 and I can't get her to sleep in her own bed. She will sleep on the floor of the frontroom, the couch and us, but I can't get her to sleep in her bed.

What I am trying to say is that every child is different. You have to basically 'find your way'. Use the Baby whisperer method now. It does work. When that stops you need to try something else. Times change along with children and for everyone it is different. I wish you good luck and a full nights sleep soon.

E.

I used the Baby Whisperer with both of my kids and it was a tremendous help. Once you get past the first few weeks of sleep/feed/sleep while still feeding, it becomes easier. The key is to keep them up for the hour (as much as you can) after feeding. There are many people who are offended by the book, but it's to be used as a guideline. You know when your child needs something - whether it's to be fed, to be held, or just some sleep. Make adjustments as needed and you'll have great success with the book and your new born. Our first child was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and our second child (who to this day is still a horrible sleeper) slept through the night right around 10/11 weeks. He's 3 now and wish there was a follow on book for toddlers so I could wake up in the morning and not find him in our bed. :)

Enjoy!!

When they're little, let them sleep as much as they want, but if they start to get their days/nights mixed up, you should try to keep them up so that they can get back on schedule. I remember my newborns taking several naps/day, but my neighbor's newborn hardly ever napped. Every child is different. As he gets older, he'll have a nap in the morning and a nap in the afternoon and then get put to bed around 6:30 and sleep through the night (hopefully). Good luck with your little one, and roll with it (don't be too rigid about the schedule b/c he will constantly frustrate you if you are rigid). His body knows what it needs, and he will sleep when he is tired.