Sample Babywise schedules 9-12 weeks old. Baby schedules used for baby’s third month of life. Newborn baby 2 month schedules.
This post outlines what to expect in the the third month, or in other words, a 2 month old. This post covers weeks 9-12 weeks old and includes sample schedules for these ages. Find 3 month old Babywise schedules here.
By the third month, you will start to feel a little bit like you know what is going on. Baby’s sleep will move to some longer stretches at night and you might have longer naps.
Don’t get me wrong, you are still in the newborn months and things can just be hard during those months. But you are getting closer to being through these unpredictable newborn months.
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!
Also, if you are working on sleep training, you must read my post Sleep Training: The Four S’s.
Post Contents
- Third Month Overview
- Month 3 Sample Schedules
- Week 9 Baby Schedule
- Get your Babywise books here
- Week 10 Baby Schedule
- Week 11 Baby Schedule
- Week 12 Baby Schedule
- See Our Newborn Summaries:
- Your Sample Schedules
- 9 Week Old Baby Schedules
- 10 Week Old Baby Schedules
- 12 Week Old Baby Schedules
- Conclusion
- Related Posts
- Babywise Schedules for the First Year
- Babywise Sample Schedules: The First Month
- Sample Babywise Schedules: One Month Old
- Sample Babywise Schedules: Three Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: Four Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: Five Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: Six Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: Seven Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: Eight Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: Nine Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: Ten Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: Eleven Months Old
- Babywise Sample Schedules: 12-15 Months Old
Third Month Overview
During this third month, aim for the following:
- 8 Weeks: Baby might be ready to drop to 6 feedings in a 24-hour period.
- 8 Weeks: If cluster feeding, some stop at 8 weeks. You do not have to stop, though.
- 8 Weeks: Most babies will no longer be sleepy during feedings and are easier to keep awake in the daytime. Some do this younger.
- 9 Weeks: Baby might be ready to drop the dreamfeed. The range is 9-15 weeks, and yes, many times baby is older than that.
- 9 Weeks: Baby might be able to go 9-10 hours of sleep at night between feedings if breastfed. If bottle fed, baby can up up to 11. Keep mind many babies are still not at 7-8 hours at night yet.
- 9 Weeks: 2-3 month old babies might wake up in the 5 AM hour and talk to themselves for a while before falling back to sleep. This is normal.
- 12 Weeks: Many babies are now sleeping 7-8 hours at night by this age.
- 12 Weeks: Some babies are ready to go to a 3-4 hour feeding schedule.
- 13 Weeks: Might be ready for 5-7 feedings in day.
- Your baby is not ready for solid food yet.
- You might drop the swaddle during this time period but might keep it. Once you dro the swaddle, look into using sleep sacks to help keep baby warm if baby is not warm enough.
For a full year overview, see this post: Your Babywise Baby: First Year Overview.
>>>Read: Baby Playtime Activities By Age
Month 3 Sample Schedules
Here is our 2 month old sleep schedule we used in this age range. We had a diaper change during each awake time window.
Week 9 Baby Schedule
7:30–feed
8:20–nap
11:00–feed
11:50–nap
2:00–feed
2:50–nap
4:30 or 5:00–feed
5:20–nap
7-7:30 (time varies here)–feed, then bedtime
10:00–dreamfeed
Then a night feed. Typically, this happened between 6-6:15. Toward the end of the week she slept until 7 AM.
Get your Babywise books here
Week 10 Baby Schedule
Schedule 1
7:30 AM–eat
8:30 AM–nap
10 or 10:30–eat (I always get her by 10:30)
10:50 or 11:20–nap
1 or 1:30–eat (I always get her by 1:30)
1:50 or 2:20–nap
3:30 or 4:00–eat (I always get her by 4:00)
4:20 or 4:50 PM–nap
5:30 or 6:00 PM–eat (I always get her by 6)
WITCHING HOUR TIME PERIOD–sometimes she sleeps, sometimes not
8:00 PM–eat
8:30 PM–in bed
10:00 PM–Dreamfeed
Schedule 2
7:30–feed
8:20–nap
11:00–feed
11:50–nap
2:00–feed
2:50–nap
4:30-5:00–feed
5:20–nap
7-7:30 (time varies here)–feed, then bedtime
10:00–dreamfeed
Week 11 Baby Schedule
Schedule 1
7:30 AM–eat
8:30 AM–nap
10 or 10:30 AM–eat (I always get her by 10:30)
10:50 or 11:20 AM–nap
1 or 1:30 PM–eat (I always get her by 1:30)
1:50 or 2:20 PM–nap
4:00 PM–eat
4:50 PM–nap
6:00 PM–eat
6:45 PM–put in swing (due to witching hour)–sometimes she sleeps, sometimes not
8:00 PM–eat (essentially a dreamfeed–no waketime)
8:30 PM–in bed
10:00 PM–Dreamfeed
Schedule 2
7:30–feed
8:20–nap
11:00–feed
11:50–nap
2:00–feed
2:50–nap
5:00–feed
5:20–nap
7-7:30 (time varies here)–feed, then bedtime
10:15–dreamfeed
Week 12 Baby Schedule
Schedule 1
7:30 AM–eat
8:30 AM–nap
10 or 10:30 AM–eat (I always get her by 10:30)
10:50 or 11:20 AM–nap
1 or 1:30 PM–eat (I always get her by 1:30)
1:50 or 2:20 PM–nap
4:00 PM–eat
4:50 PM–nap6:00 PM–eat
6:45 PM–put in swing (due to witching hour)–sometimes she sleeps, sometimes not
8:00 PM–eat (essentially a dreamfeed–no waketime)
8:30 PM–in bed
10:00 PM–Dreamfeed
Schedule 2
8:10–feed
9:10–nap
11:30–feed
12:20–nap
3:00–feed
3:50–nap
6:00–feed
7:00–nap
8:00–feed, then bedtime
10:15–dreamfeed
See Our Newborn Summaries:
In each of these summaries, you will get a lot of detail on what the baby was doing at this age beyond just what the schedule was.
- McKenna Newborn Summary: Week Nine
- McKenna Newborn Summary: Week Ten
- McKenna Newborn Summary: Week 11
- McKenna Newborn Summary: Week Twelve
- Brinley Newborn Summary: Week 9
- Brinley Summary: Week 10
- Brinley Summary: Week 11
- Brinley Summary: Week 12
Your Sample Schedules
Here are your sample schedules from this time period. These are real schedules used by real readers of this blog:
9 Week Old Baby Schedules
Here is my current schedule for my 9 week old girl. (She was a premie so her adjusted age would be closer to 5 weeks.) She is a good sleeper and started STTN at 7 weeks. We never did a dream feed because she goes to bed later than most.
6am: wake and nurse and she goes right back down.
9am: wake and nurse and play time.
10:15: nap
12pm: wake and nurse and wake time.
1pm: nap
3pm: wake and nurse and independent play
4pm: nap
6pm: wake and nurse. She will sit in her bouncy seat while family eats and then we all go for a walk together. Sometimes she sleeps and other times she stays awake the whole time.
8pm: She is awake by this time if she even took a nap after 6. We start our bedtime routine of bath and 4 oz bottle of either formula or pumped BM.
9pm: Bed! She sleeps through until 6am.
I always pump both side around 11:00 before I go to bed to keep up my supply since she is STTN at such a young age! We also utilized CIO for about a week and now she is napping well throughout the day. It took work, but it is so worth it!
10 Week Old Baby Schedules
10 week old boy
We are on a 3 hour or 3 hour 15 min schedule. The day starts somewhere between 7:30 or 8 am and he goes down to sleep around 9 pm. We watch for signs of tiredness and put him down for naps when we see that. Some days he can stay awake longer and some days he seems more sleepy. We just try to read him. So far its working out wonderfully. Since week 5 he has been sleeping 8-10 hours a night straight through til morning. I know we’re blessed! 🙂 This is a typical day…
~wake up between 7:30 and 8 – 5oz bottle
plays or swings for about 15 minutes
~between 8:30 and 9 – nap
~wakes up around 10:30, 10:45- 5 oz bottle
plays in play pen, tummy time, we read a book…
~noon – nap
~wakes up around 1:30, at 2:00- 5 oz bottle
swings, plays in play pen
~3:00 – nap
~wakes up between 4 and 4:30
plays with Daddy
~5:30- 5 oz bottle
around 7 he takes a 30 or 45 min catnap in his swing or sometimes in his crib
we give him a bath every other day and massage
~8:45 last bottle- 5 oz
in bed by 9:15
10 week old TWINS
I have them on the same schedule. Sometimes one isn’t as hungry or tired yet, but whoever is “dominating” wins, and they both get the bottle or bed time. Otherwise, I don’t think I could survive!
7am 3&4oz bottles
wake time getting ready, but no play time
drop off at day care
8am nap
10am 3&4 oz bottles, play time
11am nap on and off (my boy doesn’t nap well, girl naps solidly)
1pm 3&4 oz bottles, play time
2pm nap on and off
4pm 3&4 oz bottles, play time
5pm nap on and off
6:30pm family dinner (usually the babies scream the entire time while we eat since they wake from their naps early)
7:00pm 3&4oz bottles
cuddle time watching TV and reading books with babies and our 3yo
7:30 baths for each baby
8:00pm lay down for bed
10:00pm dream feed
approximately 4am middle of the night feeding. Going to start reducing ounces and try to drop this feeding soon.
10 – 13 week old boy
7:30am – 8am – Feed
wake time usually consists of baby in bouncy chair watching mom have her coffee.
9:30am – Nap
11am – Feed
wake time consists of some sort of exercise for mom, either stroller ride or front carrier hike.
12:30pm – Nap
2pm – Feed
wake time: bath then errands.
3:30pm – Nap
5pm – Feed
Wake time: bouncy chair or playpen time. Mom makes dinner.
7pm – Nap or awake usually put in swing because tends to be fussy at this time.
7:45-8:15pm – Last Feed
Have not done dreamfeeds as we are usually in bed early and up early so found dreamfeeds would actually make me lose some of my sleep.
3-4am – Feed (when baby wakes up) straight back to bed. Still trying to drop this feed.
12 Week Old Baby Schedules
12 week old girl (but same schedule since 9 weeks or so)
I also work very early, so I have to leave the house by 6:30 am and get home at 5. So I always want to make sure she starts the day with a breastfeeding before getting breastmilk from a bottle all day.
5:30 wake
6-6:15 independent playtime while I get ready for work
6:15 nap
8:30 feed
9:00-9:30 play time with daddy and tummy time
9:30 nap
11:00 feed
12:15 nap
2:00 feed
3:15 nap (she has a very hard time with this nap)
4:45 or 5:00 feed
6:00 nap (she has a hard time with this nap sometimes)
8:00 feed
8:30-9:00 bed, depending on cues
My husband pointed out that I should mention we don’t dreamfeed. I tried it, and she actually wouldn’t sleep through the night on nights that I did one. It started because I was so tired I skipped the dreamfeed for a couple of nights and she slept through. Then I picked it back up and she woke at 3:30. Perhaps because of gas? Either way, she currently doesn’t eat between 8 and 5:30
Almost 3 month old
7:30 am – eat
8:30 am – nap
10:30 am – eat
11:30 am – nap
1:30 pm – eat
2:30 pm – nap
4:30 pm – eat
5:30 pm – will take a catnap usually wakes up a little fussy – will usually have to hold – may feed early
6:45 to 7:30 pm – eat
Bed by 8 (if eats at 7:30 pm)
10pm – Dreamfeed
wakes at 5 am for “night” feed – start day at 7:30
Almost 3 months
6am-waking time-feeding
7am-nap
9am-feeding
11:30am-feeding-and usually we go out and doesn’t fall asleep until his last feeding, stays awake all that time. Very happy and calm, sometimes fussy. (i know he is tired)
2:30pm-feeding
3:30pm-nap
5pm-feeding
6pm-nap
8pm-feeding and goes to bed at 8:30 pm,50% of the feedings i wake him up, especially on this one.
2am-feeding, he wakes up for this one. I’m still working on getting him to STTN, the longest interval so far is 6.5 hours but that is about it. and I usually pump before going to sleep(10-11 pm) to keep my milk supply.
God bless you all for sharing!
2-3 Months
7:30 Wake, Nurse
8:20 Nap
10:30 Wake, Nurse
11:25 Nap
1:30 Wake, Nurse
2:25-30 Nap
4:30 Wake, Nurse
5:30 Cat nap
6:30 Bath, bedtime routine
7:00 Nurse (Sometimes earlier if really tired)
7:30 Bed
10:30/11 Dreamfeed
No MOTN feeding since about 10 weeks
Here’s the schedule we used between 2-5 months
6:00am Wake, nurse, then some playtime
7:00 or 7:15 Goes down for a Nap
9am Wake, nurse, then tummy time and playtime (sometimes errands)
10:30 Nap
12pm Wake, nurse, then tummy time & playtime or errands
1:30 Nap
3:00 Wake, nurse, playtime
4:30 Nap (sometimes this nap starts a little later. He usually takes longer to fall asleep for this nap.)
6:00 Nurse, playtime and family time
8:00 Nurse and then bed (8:30pm)
(about 12pm feeding until he dropped it at approximately 6 weeks)
(about 3am feeding until he started sleeping through the night consistently at 3.5 months)
Conclusion
Good sleep habits are vital to establishing a baby sleep schedule. Be sure to check out my next post in this series for your 3-month-old’s sleep schedule tips.
There is not really a sleep regression at this age, so if your baby is having short naps or struggling with nighttime sleep, it won’t be caused by a simple sleep regression.
Related Posts
If you like to learn from videos, make sure to follow me on YouTube to be notified each time I upload a new video! You can find helps from all of my most popular content on this blog in video form on YouTube!
Babywise Schedules for the First Year
This is a compilation of sample schedules for baby's entire first year!
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.
Sample Babywise Schedules: One Month Old
Sample Babywise Schedules for 5-9 week old baby. Newborn sample schedules to get baby sleeping well and on a consistent routine.
Sample Babywise Schedules: Three Months Old
Sample Babywise Schedules. Babywise schedule for the fourth month. You are looking at weeks 14-18. See what schedule other Babywise babies followed.
Babywise Sample Schedules: Four Months Old
Babywise Sample Schedules: The Fifth Month. 5 month old Babywise sleep schedule. These are real schedules used by real Babywise moms.
Babywise Sample Schedules: Five Months Old
Babywise Sample Schedules: The Sixth Month. 6 month old Babywise sleep schedules. Babywise schedules used by real Babywise babies.
Babywise Sample Schedules: Six Months Old
This post gives sample schedule Babywise schedules for the seventh month. The seventh month of baby’s life comprises weeks 27-31. Baby is six months old moving to 7 months old. These are Babywise 6 and 7 Month Old Sample Schedules.
Babywise Sample Schedules: Seven Months Old
Sample schedules for a 7-8 month old using the Babywise method. This is the 8th month of life. Baby schedules for 31-35 weeks old.
Babywise Sample Schedules: Eight Months Old
Sample schedules for an 8 month old using the Babywise method. This is the 9th month of life. Baby schedules for 35-39 weeks old.
Babywise Sample Schedules: Nine Months Old
Sample schedules for an 9 month old using the Babywise method. This is the 10th month of life. Baby schedules for 39-44 weeks old.
Babywise Sample Schedules: Ten Months Old
Sample schedules for a 10 month old using the Babywise method. This is the 11th month of life. Baby schedules for 43-48 weeks old.
Babywise Sample Schedules: Eleven Months Old
Sample schedules for an 11 month old using the Babywise method. This is the 12th month of life. Baby schedules for 48-52 weeks old.
Babywise Sample Schedules: 12-15 Months Old
Sample schedules for 12-15 month old pretoddlers using the Babywise method. Know what milestones to expect and how to shift the schedule for your young toddler.
This post originally appeared on this blog in September 2017
Hello! As many others have stated, I am so thankful for this blog! It has helped me trouble shoot all of my questions around nap issues and STTN. I have been implementing BW since my son was born and it has been pretty seamless up until recently. My son is now 14 weeks old. Since he was about 11 weeks old, he sometimes began waking in the night at various times between 1 am – 3 am. At first I thought it was a feeding issue, so I tried to remedy it by feeding when he woke in the night and adding additional feedings/cluster feeding during the day.I just went back through my log and noticed that the nights he did STTN, he either had no evening nap (refused to sleep through it) or only slept 30 minutes. I went back to BW to reference and came across a weird overlap. BW shows in Merge 3 that there are 5 daytime feedings with 5 naps that go along with it for weeks 10-15. Merge 4 shows 4 daytime feedings with 3 naps for weeks 16-24. However, under the sleep and nap summary found in the next chapter, it says that babies 8-12 weeks should be getting 4-5 naps while babies 13-15 weeks should be getting 3-4. With my 14 week old, I was following the Merge 3 feeding schedule and giving my baby 5 naps per day. The last nap of the day is typically the hardest one for him to go down and oftentimes he was waking 30-45 minutes after. In trying to keep with the schedule, I let him CIO and about half the time, he went back to sleep (but would end up waking in the middle of the night). Do you think that by dropping this nap entirely or letting him have waketime when he wakes early from this nap (rather than letting him CIO), he will begin consistently STTN again? Additionally, should I keep that evening waketime activity low-stimulating? Perhaps a walk or spending time in the swing?Any advice/perspective would be much appreciated!!!
Thanks for these monthly schedule breakdowns. We’ve been trying to follow the Babywise book to the letter and it worked well for us up until this 7-10 week range. From our 7-10-1-4 schedule, we were able to merge out 1 & 4am feedings with an 11pm & 3am feeding. However, we cannot seem to get our twins to drop the 3am feeding. The book says to shift to a 6-8:30-11 schedule in the evening, but they don’t seem to want to eat much during those times. We’re also finding that they’ll eat at 7, sleep past 11, even 12:30, but will be awake again in a couple hours, hungry by 4 or earlier, sometimes screaming like we’ve starved them. And of course the two of them rarely want to wake up and feed at the same time. Can you or another babywise parents out there help us understand what to do?
Wondering if you could help me…We are currently doing:
8am feed/wake/sleep, 11am feed/wake/sleep, 2pm feed/wake/sleep, 5pm feed/wake/cat nap, 8pm feed/wake/bed, 1030pm dream feed. But for the 8pm cycle, he is just wide awake till 10pm. I feed him around 8pm, do a bath and routine, then he just stays awake happy. Then he fusses and falls asleep around 10. By the time I get him to sleep, I am going back in his room for a dream feed. Why isn’t he ready for bed sooner after that 8pm feed?
Thanks for your help!
My 10 week old will only sleep through the night from around 12 midnight to 7am when her stomach.
I have been putting her on her stomach during the day when I can sit next to her as she naps and watch her so I have seen her turn several times…although I still wake up very often to check on her at night and her bed is very close to mine so I wake with every sound she makes.
While on her back she wakes up every 3 hours.
Will she swaddle? And will she sleep well that way?
That is certainly tricky! I have never had a tummy sleeper. You might chat with your baby’s doctor about it and see what his/her thoughts are on it.
Hi! We have a very active little girl! She’s 11 weeks old, not sleeping through the night yet, but has given us 4-5.5hr stretches here and there. We are curious about wake times and putting her down for naps because she doesn’t like sleep it seems…she takes short naps when she does go down, and some are longer than others. She fights swaddling when she is too awake.
Hi Christina, have you read this post? https://www.babywisemom.com/optimal-waketime-lengths/
Thanks so so much for this blog site. It’s been super helpful.
Just wondering about the evening hours for my two month old. Many sample schedules seem to feed at 8pm and baby is down by 8:30 which implies no wake time. Is this feeding to sleep? She is often awake (or witching hours from 6-8, have tried to get her down fro a nap but she cries)
Thanks!!!
I am so glad the blog has been helpful!
It wouldn’t be feeding to sleep, it would just be feeding and then immediately putting in bed for the night. But if your baby is having witching hour, do not be afraid to feed to sleep. Sometimes that is the only thing you can do to help a baby calm down in witching hour. Read this post for more on that: https://www.babywisemom.com/witching-hour/
We have a nine week old baby and I’m at a loss for how to get him to sleep longer stretches at night! When he was 5-6weeks, his longest sleeping stretch at night, was 5-6hours long. Now it’s actually shortened to 4hours! His daytime feeding schedule is 07-10-1-4-7pm (last feeding is bath, then bed), the with 1-2 feedings during the night. He used to take his last feeding, then sleep until 1 or 2am. Now he’s been waking up at 12:30am, even after a “late” day yesterday when he had an additional evening feeding and didn’t start sleeping until 9pm.
After his “midnight/1-ish” feeding, he wakes again, at least once to feed again before 7am wake up time. He is getting good wake time and naps throughout the day, with us being very attentive to sleep cues. I tried a dream feed once (at 10pm), but he just woke up again at 1am wanting to eat!
I’m just at my wits end for how to extend his nighttime hours???
-Of note, he is taking full feedings during the day.
-I’m breastfeeding Exclusively
-I’ve tried shortening his time in between daytime feedings to 2.5hrs (in order to add “milk calories” during the day), and unless he’s in a growth spurt, he is very slow to get started breastfeeding, to the point he really has very little interest in eating before the 3hr mark and will take forever to get started.
-I’ve tried just comforting to see if he’ll go back to sleep at this 12:30 time and he wants nothing to do with it and takes a full feeding at this time
-also he’s healthy and gaining more than the average weight.
Please help with any advice you can give-thank you!!
Hi Jennifer,
Him waking that often at that age can be very normal considering there is no dreamfeed happening. If there were a dreamfeed, one feeding at night could be very normal.
So I would either push to get the dreamfeed working or just accept it as is for now. It sounds like you have tried the basics already.
This post might spark an idea of something that could be off, though: https://www.babywisemom.com/nightime-sleep-issues-revised-and/
Hello,
Thank you for these schedules and sharing your insights.
On week 12, I noticed you mentioned that there are 2 “dreamfeeds”. I struggle to find out why and will one of these be phased out on week 13 and beyond? Would you kindly help me to understand.
Below is what I’m referring to. Thank you so much!
8:00 PM–eat (essentially a dreamfeed–no waketime)
8:30 PM–in bed
10:00 PM–Dreamfeed
Hello! Yes–the reason I called a dreamfeed is simply beceause there was no waketime. So it was feed then right to bed. She had witching hour, so she was asleep ebfore this 8:00 feeding and I wanted to keep her that way to avoid her being awake forever from witching hour.
Not all babies have witching hour, so if your baby does not, this isn’t something you need to worry about.
Good question. Thanks for asking!
Hi! I’m hoping you can give me some help/insight on my little guys schedule. He’s nine weeks old today and exclusively formula fed. So far we’ve been followed the schedule in the BW book of 6:30/9:30/12:30/3:30/6:00/8:30/11:00 with one MOTN feed that falls in the 2-3am range. I am still having to wake him up from every nap and we have trouble getting him to take a full feeding each time. Especially in the evening feeds that are less than 3 hours apart. I’m wondering if I should try a 3-3.5 hour schedule and do something like 6:30/9:30or10/1/4or4:30/7:30 (bedtime) then a 10:30 or 11 dream feed. Or do a 6:30/9:30/12:30/3:30/6:30/9:30/11:30? Which one is more appropriate for his age and is better for dropping his motn feed? Also, for the second schedule what would be his bedtime? The 6:30 feed feels too early but 9:30 feels too late. Lastly, for a schedule that has 3.5 gaps in it, does his nap time just extend past two hours for those or is it his wake time that extends? What’s the best way to manage that without over stimulating him? I’m struggling with what is the best way to implement this and still have a life. I feel like I’ve been stuck at home for 9 weeks. Is it possible to just make sure the first and last feed are the same each day then the the rest fall naturally based on baby’s lead while still sticking to the FWS cycle? Or will that mess everything up?
Hello! I think you could try starting at 6:30, feeding every 3 hours so your last feeding is at 6:30 (bedtime) and then a dreamfeed somewhere between 10-11 PM. At some point, your goal is about 12 hours between feedings in the night, so if you start at 6:30 AM, you want 6:30 PM to be the last feeding.
If you have a 3.5 hour gap in there, then either the wake time will get longer or the nap will, but which of those it is will depend on the baby. At 9 weeks, most likely nap will get longer. also, you might have some of both. Waketime a little longer and nap a little longer.
It is good to have the whole day consistent, not just the first feed and last feed, but those two feedings are vital. See this post for help getting on a consistent schedule: https://www.babywisemom.com/getting-consistent-schedule/
I wanted to add, you could also stretch things out so the last feeding starts at 7 PM if you feel like that is best for your baby and if you can get a 3.5 hour stretch in there at some point in the day.
Hello! I have a little girl who turned 10 weeks yesterday. We had been on a 2 1/2 hour rotation, mainly since the beginning which had been working out well. Recently, I have noticed she is not hungry when waking up from her nap and its painful to feed. I almost have to wait to feed her the bottle until right when she is going back down for a nap. Babywise is so focused on the Feed – wake – sleep, that I feel I am throwing that off whack by giving her an ounce or two when I wake her and then more right before she goes down for a nap. Could this be a sign that I need to spread out her feedings more? Also – we have continued to implement a dream feed at 10 pm with a bed time routine starting at 7 (bath, books, bottle) and she is asleep by 8:15. If we spread out feedings, would it be possible to push bed time to later, maybe start routine at 8, and drop the dream feed? As of now, we are waking her up at our desired wake time (6 am). Thank you for the help!
Hello,
Yes I would move to a 3 hour schedule now. I would keep the dreamfeed for now, but you can do it at 10:30 PM if you need to.
I need some help! We are at merge 2, our baby just turned today 2 months 🙂 His last eating is at 10-10:30 pm and the first feed supposed to be around 6-6:30 am. However, he Wakes up around 4:30-5 am. We wait a couple of minutes, offer pacifier but it doesn’t work, so we feed him. My understanding is that we should wake him up at 6 am, so his first feeding of the day will be consistent but the problem is thta at 6 am he eats very little and then wakes up sooner than he supposed to. What do I do? what can we do so we will wake up ready to eat at 6 am not 5..
Also, since he doesn’t sleep through the night yet, should I keep his feed-wake-nap routine from weeks 3-6 or implement routine of weeks 7-10 (and have that additional feeding at 4:30-5 am)
Hello! I have a post that will help you out: https://www.babywisemom.com/5-6-am-night-wakings/
The length of time baby is going between feeds is great for the age! It is in the range of normal. So it is just a matter of patiently waiting for baby to be able to go further. The post will help you know what to do in the meantime.
Working on napping consistency during the day. Please help! Baby is very resistant. Should we fry a dark room?
That can help. It is worth trying. See these posts: https://www.babywisemom.com/naps-troubleshooting-revised-and/ and https://www.babywisemom.com/getting-consistent-schedule/
Hi! I have a 10 week old girl and
I’m wondering how to stay on schedule when her naps are inconsistent? Our morning wake time is between 7-8, her wake times are usually only 50 minutes at most. I try to stay on a 3 hour schedule but every day her naps are different lengths, some 1 hr 45, some 2hr some 1hr. How do I stay on track with that? Every day her bedtime is a bit different because of it. The earliest bedtime being 6, the latest 730(my preferred bedtime for her)
She also only wants 1/2 the bottle(exclusively pump & fed breast milk) after her catnap between the 5-6PM hour, then I do her bedtime routine and she will take the rest of her bottle at that point, sometimes falling asleep at the bottle. How do I fix all that?
Thank you!
I have some posts for you to read:
https://www.babywisemom.com/my-sleep-hierarchy-for-newborns/
https://www.babywisemom.com/sleep-hierarchy-3-6-months/
https://www.babywisemom.com/what-to-do-when-your-baby-wakes-early/
After the catnap, try waiting 15-30 minutes after she wakes before feeding her. Perhaps then she will take a full feed at that point.
Hi Valerie,
I’m hoping you could help us. My 10 week old son and I had breastfeeding issues (tongue ties and supply) in the beginning which put us behind in BW. I used BW with my now 1.5 y/o and she was STTN by 2 months, but she was also formula fed since I had birth complications. Anyways, baby boy is still waking around 2-3 am and sometimes again around 5 am then 7 am. He still seems hungry so I feed him. Our day starts at 7 AM. We basically follow your nine week schedule you have posted above with cluster feeding in the evening. I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong or if he’s just a late bloomer with sleeping through the night. He usually only goes about four hours after a 10:30 PM dream-feed. Maybe I need to stop the cluster feeding in the evening? Thanks so much!
Hello,
I have a few thoughts for you.
One is that 10 weeks is still in the normal range for not sleeping through the night yet. So he isn’t old enough to be concerned something is necessarily wrong.
But another thought is that if you feel like you should try something different with the schedule, do it! If it doesn’t work, you can always add it back. So if you are feeling like you should drop the cluster feed, try skipping it and see what happens.
If he is hungry when he wakes in the night, the only thing you can do is get that food into him in the daytime. That isn’t always possible–he can only take so much at one time. Good luck!