Babywise Sample Schedules: The First Month

Sample Babywise Schedules for your baby’s first month. Babywise newborn schedules to help you get baby sleeping and eating well. Starting early creates a great routine for your newborn.

Baby sleeping in basket

The first month of baby’s life is the least scheduled overall in your Babywise journey.

You “take the clock and turn it around” as the book says. In other words, you don’t worry so much about times as you do getting the whole family more acclimated to life with a new baby.

There will never be a return to “normal.” There is a finding of a new normal.

Below are some sample schedules from the first month of life. This covers weeks 0-4.

These are baby schedules I used with my babies and also schedules used by you blog readers. Please feel free to add your own sample schedules in the comments.

Before you go further, please be sure you have read My Sleep Hierarchy For Newborns. You need to know what your primary and secondary goals should be for a newborn so you keep priorities straight. It will make your newborn life much less frustrating!

Babywise Baby First Month Overview

During this first month with your Babywise baby, aim for the following:

  • Feed your baby 8-10 times per a 24 hour period.
  • Feedings should be 2.5-3 hours apart typically.
  • Cluster feeding can be helpful for a very hungry baby in the evenings or for a baby who needs to get more feedings in the 24 hour period.
  • There will be a growth spurt around 3-4 weeks old. This will mean your baby will eat more often during the day and take shorter naps. It won’t last forever!
  • Baby will nap 6-8 times per day.
  • Naps should be around 1.5-2.5 hours long each time.
  • Your baby can go up to 5 hours between feedings at night. Some will wake up more often than that, others will need you to set an alarm and wake them up at five hours to stay on track.

For a full year overview, see this post: Your Babywise Baby: First Year Overview. Read the entire On Becoming Babywise book here (affiliate link).

Newborn first month schedule tips

Babywise Sample Schedules for Baby’s First Month

While the book says to not worry about a schedule during this week, we had one with all of our girls.

I am really big on “begin as you mean to go on.” I also found it hard to not do a schedule since that was ingrained into me by the time my girls came along.

You will find that once you have one baby, doing a schedule just comes naturally to you. So since we had our son first, a schedule was just a way of life with all three of our girls.

Another driving factor for me to stick to a schedule was that my girls didn’t wake up on their own most of the time.

I needed to wake them up so they would eat. If I left them to guide the way, who knows if and when they would have tried to eat.

My first focus with my newborns was on an “eat/wake/sleep” cycle idea. I was aware, however, that often for  a brand new baby, “wake” and “eat” might be one in the same.

Newborns are sleepy and might just eat, sleep, eat, sleep, with little to no actual wakefulness in between. Newborn babies sleep most of the time.

For help on proper expectations for awake time lengths, see this post (including an infographic on waketimes!).

>>>Read: Adding Waketime to Your Newborn’s Day

Another big focus for me in the first month was having a consistent time of day that we started each day.

I started it when I hoped my baby to start as she got older. My babies did not all end up starting the day at my ideal start time, however. They were naturally inclined to start at a different time.

Adjust your expectations as needed. Some babies woke later in the morning than I preferred and some woke earlier.

Wake baby up at this same time each day to eat and start the day. If baby is waking up in the night close to this time, see my night wakings post for help to navigate that. This helps your daytime be the same from day to day.

I also really wanted my babies to be able to fall asleep independently from the beginning. I didn’t want to teach to fall asleep one way and then teach a new way later. My favorite way to do sleep training, a no-cry solution, is the Four S’s.

This is a good time to start a sleep routine. This is simply the pattern you follow before each time baby sleeps. This can include a diaper change, putting baby in a swaddle, turning on white noise, singing a lullaby, etc.

>>>Read: Sleep Routine Ideas to Get Your Baby Sleeping Well

I also focused on our last “day” feeding to be around the same time each day as well as our dreamfeed.

Wake windows are often very short for newborns, so don’t be surprised if your newborn schedule has basically no awake time. Remember that wake time length includes feeding time.

Here is an example of what to aim for, with naps starting basically right when the feeding time was over:

7:30–nurse
10:30–nurse
1:00–nurse
4:00–nurse
6:30–nurse
9:00–nurse (dreamfeed)

Then you would have baby waking twice during the night to eat.

To summarize my primary focus points during the first month, they are:

  • Focus on an eat/wake/sleep cycle. Recognize that a newborn likely won’t be awake much longer than for a feeding and diaper change.
  • Start each day at a consistent time. Feed baby at the same time each morning.
  • Establish a sleep routine.
  • Focus on letting baby fall asleep independently as best you can.
  • Keep your last feeding of the day at the same time each day. This way, bedtime can be consistent.
  • Have the dreamfeed at a consistent time each day.

Now let’s move on to looking at some real schedules.

>>>Read: When To Move Baby To Own Room

Sample newborn schedules pinnable image

Week One

Here is a breakdown of what my third child’s first week was like:

Night One:
McKenna ate at 10:15 PM, 12:00 AM, 2:15 AM, 4:45 AM, and I woke her at 8:15 AM. What a night! Why so many feedings? One, she is small. She is under 6 pounds, so I definitely wasn’t going to try to hold her out at all if she was hungry. Also, my milk was still colostrum and I don’t think that was holding her over. Finally, she had awful gas pains that night, so she woke frequently.

Night Two:
McKenna ate at 9:50 PM, 1:30 AM, and 4:00 AM. I got her up at 7:45 AM. This was much better. She did have a gas pain situation this night, also, though.

Night Three:
McKenna ate at 9:50 PM, 1:45 AM, and 4:45 AM. I then woke her at 7:45 AM. This was the night that I first had to wake her for a night feeding. I woke her at 4:45. I could let her go up to 5 hours, but I want to keep morning waketime as consistent as possible. I also need to have at least 8 feedings in her and she does better with a longer schedule in the day–resulting in needing two night feedings right now.

Night Four:
McKenna ate at 10:15 PM, 2:15 AM, and 6:15 AM. I woke her at 8:15 AM. I woke her for all four of these feedings listed.

Night Five:
McKenna ate at 10:00 PM, 1:35 AM (she woke for this), and 5:15 AM. I then woke her at 8:00 AM.

Day/Night Confusion:
Day and night confusion is very common for newborns. If you find your infant wants to stay awake at night and is very hard to wake in the day, you have a very normal baby. Read how to Fix Your Baby’s Day/Night Confusion here.

Sample Babywise Schedules for your baby's first month.

Week Two

The same rules and goals of week one apply to week two as applied in week one.

Here is the baby sleep schedule I used with McKenna (my third) as a newborn:

7:45–nurse
10:30–nurse
1:00–nurse
4:00–nurse
7:00–nurse
9:30–nurse for the dream feed. This actually can vary from 9:30-10:00 PM.

I then went to bed. She typically woke on her own somewhere around 2 AM. I then woke her around 5:30 AM so she would still be hungry enough to eat at our first feeding in the morning.

Week Three

This is when you might run into a growth spurt. If so, feed more often. If not, stick with your basic rules. Always follow baby’s hunger cues. Breastfed babies and formula fed babies have growth spurts.

If you haven’t started yet, this is a great time to start tummy time during at least one of your awake times.

>>> Read: How To Do Tummy Time Even if Baby Hates It

Morning Routine Cards
Ultimate Back to School Planner
Overcoming the Mental Load of Motherhood
Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Book of Logs
The Babywise Mom Nap Guide
Morning Routine Cards
Ultimate Back to School Planner
Overcoming the Mental Load of Motherhood
Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Book of Logs
The Babywise Mom Nap Guide
Morning Routine Cards
Ultimate Back to School Planner
Overcoming the Mental Load of Motherhood
Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Book of Logs
The Babywise Mom Nap Guide

Week Four

If the growth spurt didn’t happen in week three, it will at four weeks of life. Feed as often as your infant needs this week.

Here is a sample of my fourth child at week four:

7:30–feed
8:20–nap
10:30–feed
11:20–nap
1:30–feed
2:20–nap
4:30–feed
5:20–nap
7-7:30 (time varies here)–feed, then bedtime
10:00–dreamfeed
then night feed(s).

Here is a sample newborn sleep schedule from a reader at one month old:

6:00am Bottle
6:50 Nap
9:00 Bottle
9:50 Nap
12:00pm Bottle
1:00 Nap
3:00 Bottle
4:00 Nap
6:00 Bottle
6:30 Bath / Bedtime routine
7:00 Bed
10:00 Bottle
2:00 Bottle

Get your Babwise books here

On Becoming Pottywise
On Becoming Teenwise
On Becoming Preteenwise
On Becoming Childwise
On Becoming Preschoolwise
On Becoming Toddlerwise
On Becoming Pre-Toddlerwise
On Becoming Babywise Book 2
On Becoming Babywise
On Becoming Pottywise
On Becoming Teenwise
On Becoming Preteenwise
On Becoming Childwise
On Becoming Preschoolwise
On Becoming Toddlerwise
On Becoming Pre-Toddlerwise
On Becoming Babywise Book 2
On Becoming Babywise

Sleeping Tips for Newborns

Some parents like to keep their infant in a bassinet in their bedroom for a long time, but others move baby into their own room sometime in the first month. Your newborn baby can sleep in her crib in the nursery if you feel like she is ready for it.

Everyone, including infants, has sleep transitions while they sleep. For a newborn, there will be a sleep transition about 45 minutes into each nap. If baby cries out at 45 minutes, wait a bit before responding to the cry. Baby will likely go back to sleep if you give her 5-10 minutes.

You won’t really get long stretches of nighttime sleep at this age. They can be longer than the stretches between feeds in the daytime, but a newborn still eats quite often even through the night-time.

Read Further Sample Schedules as Your Baby Grows

Babywise Schedules for the First Year

This is a compilation of sample schedules for baby's entire first year!

Baby Sleep Help

Need help getting baby to take great naps? Get my eBook The Babywise Mom Nap Guide here to establish great naps!

 The Babywise Mom Nap Guide

The Babywise Mom Nap Guide eBook helps you establish successful naps from birth through the preschool years. It is a great resource!

$14.99 – You can buy it here and get an instant download. By making a purchase, you are agreeing to my privacy policy.

 

Helpful Schedule Posts

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Sample Newborn Baby Schedule Pinnable image

This post originally appeared on this blog May 2017

40 thoughts on “Babywise Sample Schedules: The First Month”

  1. This is so timely! We just had our fourth baby 8 days ago. I'm finding following a "schedule" from day one so much more important this time around because this is the first time we've had to juggle and new baby along with school & other obligations with our older kids. I'm struggling with getting this baby to sleep anywhere but in my arms. My old backups- swings, or putting him in the bassinet right next to me with my hand on his tummy- just don't cut it with this kid. With past kids I would have success when I timed things well (getting them in bed when they were drowsy but not quite asleep) but this guy is so tired he's pretty much always asleep. Lol. Anyway, I'm finding a bit of incremental success with focusing on what I can control. I can establish the waketime, the wake (eat)/sleep pattern, the nap/bed routine. Then I always try the crib, and sometimes it works and sometimes I resort to my arms or being carried in a baby wrap. Hopefully there won't be too much long term trouble. So far we've gone from not sleeping at all without me to about 50% success with a crib/bassinet. I'm hoping things will continue to improve so I can get some more ZZZs!

    Reply
  2. Thanks for the very informative post! I’m getting ready to have my second Babywise baby and was wondering how you juggle “begin as you mean to go on” with holding your newborn (say, younger than 2 weeks old). Babies sleep most of the time; do you always put them down to sleep and if so how do you ever get a chance to hold them? Thanks!

    Reply
    • I often did put my little ones down for sleep. I might start a nap holding them or end the nap holding them. At the dreamfeed, I would snuggle the baby a lot then. I found with a child not quite two, it was hard to sit and hold the baby because the toddler needed attention!

      Reply
  3. My son will be three weeks tomorrow. His awake patterns are not consistent. He will be wide awake for about an hour after a morning feeding and about an hour after a night feeding. The other feedings he falls right to sleep. How can I help him get into a good pattern?
    Also, do you feed at those times regardless or do they vary by 20-30 minutes?

    Reply
  4. I’m wondering if you have any advice on extending babes sleep. I’m trying to establish a 7AM wake time. We start the bedtime feed at 8 and he’s usually in bed by 8:30. His night wake ups aren’t consistent yet so sometimes he wakes around 11 and sometimes it’s 1. Then another time between 3-4:30. What does stay consistent no matter what time the second wake time is is he will ALWAYS wake at 6. So I’ll feed him and then wake at 7. He’s 4 weeks old.

    Reply
  5. Hello,

    My baby is 4 weeks old and is awake most of the time. She will only nap during the day if we are holding her or in a sling and she drifts off and sleeps for very short periods at night. It seems like she eating all the time like she is going through a constant growth spurt. I am concerned since she is getting nowhere near the 15-16 hours per day.

    Reply
  6. Hi! I have a 3 week old and trying to figure out our schedule. Should feedings be closer together in the morning or late evening? Any benefit to less time between feedings in the morning? Also, do you count your first feeding of the day twice? Example: 7 am, 10am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 7 Pm, 10, 2 am, 6-7 am is 8 feedings. Is that okay for a 3 week old?

    Reply
    • Typically feedings are closer together in the evenings than in the mornings, but that is only a “should” if that is what is best for your baby. You only count the first feeding of the day once. I would probably try for some cluster feeding in the evening to help get another feeding in there: https://www.babywisemom.com/cluster-feeding/

      BUT if you feel like the 7 feedings a day is working great, baby is needing to be woken from naps to eat or is not waking until the scheduled time to eat, baby is happy, and diaper output is great, then what you are doing is probably fine.

      Reply
  7. Should I wake up my two-week-old from a nap to feed? For example, this morning she ate at 8AM, then was awake (we had “playtime”) until 10AM. Technically, she should eat again by 11AM but I’m not sure if I should wake her to do so, or wait until she rouses … any tips would be great. Thanks!

    Reply
  8. I just had a baby 4 days ago and I’m so lost. He has had me up 9 times since 12 am today! And it’s only 5 am. How do I get him on a schedule? Should I let him cry it out? This has been since birth. I’ve only slept 6 hours. My health is suffering and my stitches sent healing! I have to do something. How can we fix this?

    Reply
  9. Hello! I have a 10 day old and trying to get her into a schedule. It is not working out to well, i did Babywise with my first (He’s five now) but this little one is more difficult. It is not often she will wake herself to eat, I wake her every 2.5-3 hrs, but most times since her wake times were longer due to nursing length (too sleepy) or she begins to cry and won’t go to sleep due to burping issues, she gets less sleep which is turning into a vicious cycle. I am trying to figure this out, when do you wake her if her sleep hasn’t been long enough to be rested to awake to eat? I am trying to establish the first morning feed around 7a but it seems like just when I have a chance to make that she has a bad night with crying or a long feed cutting into her nap time length and then the times change throughout the day. Help! I am desperate to try and get something working!! I have read a bunch on your blog but would still like guidance. Thank you!

    Reply
      • Hello Again! I know that I asked for advice from you already on naps, etc. But would still like some advice, our little one is very early to the babywise scheduling, she is 12 days old now. I am trying to feed her consistently on a 2.5 to 3 hour schedule. There are two things that I am struggling with bad:
        1) I have noticed that I wake her for all or most of these feedings. Sometimes she wakes and eats well other times she is very sleepy. She has a rare time when she wakes about 30 minutes early and I feed her. Are these feedings too close together that she is not waking herself in hunger? The next part may have something to do with this part.
        2) She refuses to sleep in anything but her swing, day and night. I try to do the four S’s technique, but she starts crying, she cries nonstop pushing into her naptime cycle unless I put her in the swing so then at least she is getting some sleep before I wake her for the next feeding. I am very frazzled and do not want to start an extremely bad habit. If I am waking her for all her feedings, how will I know if she is ready to drop a night feeding, etc.? Sorry I just don’t know what to do at this point, I feel very lost and try to read through your blog for what to do but in some ways I keep getting lost in all the information. I could really use some true one on one advice. I want to try and not get too worried and be flexible but I do want to start how I want to finish. And I know that this works, our son may have picked it up way faster, we didn’t start him right away thought like this. Thank you for your time.

        Reply
        • Hi Christine,

          For your first question, it is very normal for newborns to be very sleepy. They are just very tired.

          see this post for help: https://www.babywisemom.com/sleepy-newborns/

          If she isn’t falling asleep easily, I would look at your waketime length. If you get that down right, naps are much easier. I wouldn’t worry about night so much right now as getting daytime down. If she is waking 1-2 times per night between 10ish and 7ish, that is very normal and won’t change much if at all before 5 weeks old. So you have some time to jus focus on days before worrying about how to know what to do in the future with nights. Here is a post to help you with optimal waketime length: https://www.babywisemom.com/optimal-waketime-lengths/

          Reply
  10. Hello! I appreciate all of your insight! Do you have sample schedules that are printable? The ones on your site are too small to print. Thank you!

    Reply
  11. So you say you adjust to baby’s schedule? I was actually hoping to somehow adjust the baby’s timing to my/our needs (like my husband getting up for work). We’re following Susan Ubran’s tips from the very beggining (from parental-love.com blog) and I find those tips very helpful. Although I would be grateful for the possibility to push the waking our a bit later though.

    Reply
  12. Hi!
    I need help. My baby is 3 1/2 weeks old and we started implementing Babywise when he was about a week. I’m so confused. I’ve set a schedule but seem to shift it everyday. Is the goal that every feeding should be 3 hours apart or a few should be 3 and others 2 1/2? I feel like showtimes, my feedings that are only 2 1/2 hours apart are too short because it can take him some time to fall asleep for his nap which leaves him only sleeping for about an hour before I wake him again. Is this ok? Or should I schedule everything 3 hours apart and then only feed him at 2 1/2 hours if he wakes early? Also, how long should I let him CIO for at this age? Last question, I’m struggling with the last evening feed in my schedule. Is it a big deal to do 9:00 then again at 11pm since it’s only 2 hours apart or should I drop the 11pm feeding and let him guide the feedings after the 9:00/9:30pm one based on his needs. This is all so overwhelming. I’m crying just typing all of this. I need help. I have no idea if I’m doing this right.

    Reply
    • Hello! First, try to not stress. I know it is really hard, especially when you are sleep deprived and your body is figuring out not being pregnant. But he is very young and it is very normal for days to be very different right now. You also won’t ruin him for life if there is something that isn’t “right” right now. I didn’t even start any sort of anything with my oldest until he was about a month old, and then it was only the eat/wake/sleep. He was 9 weeks when we got real. So you are doing a great job!

      For feeding intervals, you can do 3 hours all day if that works best. You can do 2.5 hours all day if that works best. You can mix it up if that works best. Personally, I did 3 hours unless I needed to do 2.5. I had one baby who was consistently hungry at 2.5 hours for just one interval a day, so we did that one at 2.5. I had times I did 2.5 so naps lined up among the kids.

      I will link to a couple of sleep training posts for you: https://www.babywisemom.com/sleep-training-four-ss/ and https://www.babywisemom.com/cio-bootcamp-revised-and-updated/

      You are totally fine to do feeds at 9 PM and 11 PM. That is very normal to do that. Here is a post about that strategy: https://www.babywisemom.com/cluster-feeding/

      You are having to learn a whole lot all at once. Give yourself so much grace.

      Reply
  13. Hi there, we had a massivrly horrible tongue tie situation and had so much difficulty with feeding and weight gain in the beginning that we weren’t able to properly start BW until now, coming up on 7 weeks- and freeding can often still be quite difficult. Where to start? Is it too late? I’m hoping to pick one of your schedules and use the wake time for his age to start.. thank you for all of your amazing content.

    Reply
  14. My newborn is now 3 weeks old. He feeds every 2 hours since he was born. Randomly every hour towards the evenings and maybe once in the day with a 3 hour gap. I end up feeding him 11-13 times a day. It’s been very tiring. I don’t know how to change this two hour feedings.
    I just started asking my husband to do one feed (pumped milk in a bottle) just so I can catch up on some sleep. He has no medical condition.
    Putting him to bed after awake time is so hard cause he cries so much. It’s like he wants me to nurse him to sleep.
    I started him on a schedule starting the day at 7am and ending the day at 8pm. I try to follow the eat/wake/sleep but with feeding every 2 hours, he doesn’t get much sleep between feeds cause it takes him a while to go back down to sleep. Please help!

    Reply
  15. My baby is 3 weeks old. When I’m trying to put him to sleep he sits with his eyes half open for anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. He looks like he’s about to fall asleep but then just stays in that stage forever. Both my older two did the same thing when they were babies. Sometimes they eventually drift off to sleep and sometimes they end up opening their eyes wide open again and from there they are wide awake. I’ve tried all different wake times and I can’t seem to figure out how to shorten this stage. I try to put him down in his crib but he is immediately wide awake again and starts to cry. Is there anything I can try? Am I missing something?

    Reply
  16. Our baby is 3 weeks old today and has been on the following schedule:
    Eat: 7:15
    Nap: 8
    Eat: 10:15
    Nap: 11
    Eat: 12:45
    Nap: 1:30
    Eat: 3:45
    Nap: 4:30
    Eat: 6:15
    Nap: 7:15 bedtime
    Eat then back to bed: 8:30
    Dreamfeed: 10:30

    After the DF he wakes up once anywhere from 2-3. After putting him back down, he’ll sleep for about 3 hours and then wake up again close to his DWT, but not close enough for me to start the day with him. I’ve tried the pacifier which works in 30 min intervals, but doesn’t seem to hold him off til DWT. So I often try the paci a couple times then usually will just hold him to sleep til DWT.
    Is this an indication that baby is still hungry and needs another feeding?

    Reply
  17. Greetings
    I’ve been trying to read your posts but there are so many ads and advertisements that it is rather distracting. Is there a way to ask questions about babywise?

    Reply

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