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View Full Version : Daily schedule to strive for?? We feel like we have lost control :(



1st timeparents
10-04-2003, 08:13 PM
Hello,

At 3 months our daughter began sleeping through the night and we rejoiced!!! I would parent on demand throughout the day, and then we would get her down by 11:00 or 12:00 at night. She would sleep for 8 hours!! Now 2 weeks later she is back waking up after 3 or 4 hours, and sometimes we can't get her back to sleep. My husband and I suddenly feel like we don't know what we are doing. Our daughter nurses and receives 3 bottles of formula a day. We save the last for bedtime---she takes 6 oz at night. She seems to eat between 6 & 8 times a day. So I guess my question is --- can someone give me a sample schedule of their 4 month olds daily routine. I don't feel like I am giving my daughter the consistancy she needs to thrive. What time should we be trying to put her down at night? She always seems so tired in the evening--so she ends up falling asleep--but then wakes up. How many naps should she be taking during the day--what times? Any and all feedback would be sooo welcome! Thanks to all!

Karen & Ken - parents to Jenna, 4 months on October 10th.

MartiesMom2B
10-05-2003, 05:08 AM
Karen and Ken:

I have to tell you that from what I read on here, something happens to our babes around 4 months that totally screw with their sleep schedules. I don't know what it is but it did happen to us.

DD probably started going to sleep between 9 - 10 at night. Woke up around 5:30 - 7:00 for a feeding and then sleep until 9. Then her naps were erratic. The best I could say is that she would take a 2 hour nap sometime in the afternoon and then get fussy again around dinner time until she went to sleep.

Reading Weissbluth's book helped alot. I think ideally a four month old should nap in the morning and afternoon. Try keeping a sleep journal for a few days, it might be able to help you look for a pattern that you can't see now. I did that and I saw that Martie's tolerance for being up is about 2 1/2 hours max.

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03

jbeamer
10-07-2003, 01:19 PM
I agree with Sonia. Madi changed around 4 months also. I kept a sleep journal to see if there was a pattern at all. She would go to bed between 7&8pm, wake around 4-5am for a feeding and sleep until 8-9am. She then took catnaps for awhile during the day 20-40mins long. Sometimes in the afternoon she would sleep1-2hours. But just after dinner 5pm she would get fussy and we started the bedtime routine. Madi would fuss alot before bed I think because she would get so tired but couldn't get to sleep. I started trying not to be out and about so much during the day and noticed when I did that Madi would get into a sleep routine. We would sometimes do a dream feed before we went to bed to get her through the night longer. Now at 6months she takes two naps a day and is in bed by 7pm. Almost clockwork.

KUvsOU
10-14-2003, 03:20 PM
I know that we really did not get into a good schedule until my son was almost 6 months old. His doctor recommended "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. This really saved us! He talks about the amount of sleep a child needs by age (including naps). He also gives the range of when children of various ages should be going to sleep. He also addresses sleep problems that might come up at various ages.

As I recall from his book, your daughter should be taking three naps a day. The first one is pretty close to time she would wake up in the morning. Cade would be up 1-1/2 hours before his first nap. As I recall, his second nap started somewhere between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. and I think his last nap was at 3 p.m.

Shawna
Mom of Cade 6/16/02

drsweetie
10-21-2003, 07:49 AM
Laura is 4 1/2 months old, and her typical schedule is something like this:

Wake 6:30am, feed
1/2 hour nap sometime between 7:30 and 8:30
Feed 9:30
1/2 hour nap sometime between 11:00 and noon
Feed 12:30
1-1 1/2 hour nap around 2pm
Feed 3:30
1/2 hour nap around 6pm
Feed 6:30pm
Feed 9pm, go to bed

I don't know how typical this is for babies in general, but this has been her pattern for the past two months or so. She more or less settled on this for herself; we didn't force her into it except for trying to have her feedings be at or around those times because it fit in best with our work demands etc.

Ellen
Mom to Laura 6/9/03

justlearning
10-23-2003, 02:42 AM
For the last 2 months, DS has been on a schedule during the day in which he wakes up in the morning and feeds, then 2 hours after he woke up takes a 2-hour nap, then wakes up and feeds, then takes another 2-hour nap 2 hours later... OK, this is sounding confusing but it's actually very easy. The order is sleep-feed-awake/play time--sleep. He feeds every 4 hours and takes a 2-hour nap every 4 hours, so he's up 2 hours, then down for 2 hours, then up for 2 hours, etc. Lately, in the evenings, sometimes he'll stay up for 3 hours, then go down for the night. The time that he actually goes to bed each night varies but is usually around 9:00. The time he wakes up is usually 10-12 hours after he went to sleep the night before. (He doesn't wake up at all during the night.)