Your Babywise Baby: First Year Overview

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Babywise schedule chart and printable cheat sheet. What to expect in the first year using Babywise. How many feedings and naps at all ages 0-12 months.

Babywise family

Sometimes you just need a snapshot–the ability to step back and look at the big picture. This post has a breakdown of the book On Becoming Babywise (affiliate link) and what to expect your whole first year when you use that program.

On Becoming Babywise by Ezzo and Bucknam is an infant sleep book that helps you get your baby sleeping well and on a great schedule. To read all about Babywise and How To Successfully Do Babywise, read my post on it.

Even when you have several children, it is easy to forget when to expect certain milestones your baby should be reaching. This post is a timeline of your baby’s first year and what to expect when, along with what to implement when. This is just a guideline, not a set-in-stone rule sheet (yeah, “stone” and “sheet” aren’t really compatible, but it gets my point across).

There is a wide range of when babies sleep through the night, for example. There are so many factors that will influence, the least of which is not your baby’s individual personality.

I will list the youngest age you can possibly expect something to happen. There are a lot of babies who do these things at older ages. Information is from On Becoming Baby Wise book one and On Becoming Babywise Book Two.

A photo of a family with text

First, Baby is Born

Babywise suggests starting off for two weeks not worrying about feeding times or anything other than getting used to your new baby and getting things like feedings totally down.

This is a great time to get to know your baby and to recover a bit from pregnancy and childbirth. Do not feel like, however, you can’t start some sort of the baby sleep schedule right from birth. For two of my babies, I had to be on a solid schedule to get my little one waking up to eat on time.

Neither of my last two woke to eat on her own, so if I had just waited for her to wake up, who knows exactly what would have happened. As it was, I woke them every three hours in the day and every 5 hours in the night. They started on this sleep schedule and stayed on it easily.

You might feel more comfortable with the word routine at this age. You can start a routine with your newborn baby right away.

When doing Babywise, remember Babywise PDF. Parent Directed Feeding. Babywise is all about the parent doing what is best for the baby.

Parent Directed Feeding (Babywise PDF) Explained

Newborn Months

Below are some milestones to expect during the newborn months. Remember, I have listed milestones at the youngest age you can expect them to happen. That means your baby can be older than this to meet the milestone. The newborn months cover birth through 13 weeks old.

  • Birth: A Newborn will have 8-10 feedings in a 24 hour period initially.
  • Birth: Feedings will be 2.5-3 hours apart.
  • Birth: 6-8 naps a day
  • Birth: 5 hours of sleep at night consequtively. Do not allow more if breastfeeding.
  • Birth: Can cluster feed (from Baby Whisperer).
  • 3 Weeks: First growth spurt will likely happen this week or next. Growth spurts happen every 3-4 weeks and can last up to a week at a time.
  • 5 Weeks: Baby might be able to do 2.5-3.5 flexible schedule. Baby might not be ready for this until 8 weeks or older, though.
  • 5 Weeks: Start simple Independent Playtime this week.
  • 6 Weeks: Baby can be allowed to sleep longer stretches at night. 7-8 hours is okay.
  • 7 Weeks: Baby might start sleeping 7-8 hours at this age. Many babies do not do this until older, though. This would mean your baby does not have a night feeding after the dreamfeed.
  • 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.
  • 8 Weeks: Most babies will no longer be sleepy during feedings and are easier to keep awake. 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 at night between feedings if breastfed. If bottle fed, it 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.
  • 12 Weeks: Many babies are now sleeping 7-8 hours 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.

See Index For Newborns for posts and more information on this age range.

Overview of the your Babywise baby's first year. Know how many feedings to have, when to drop feedings, how many naps baby should have, and how long to expect naps to be.

4-6 Month Age Range

Here are the Babywise milestones to expect in the 4-6 month old age range.

  • 4 Months: Baby is usually at 3 naps. If not, by 5 months baby should be at 3 naps in a day.
  • 4 Months: Baby might be ready for 10-12 hours of sleep at night. Some will not be ready for this until 6 months, and the normal range is always 10-12, so some babies might just be 10 hour a night people.
  • 4 Months: Often a rough age for sleep.
  • 4 Months: Baby will move to 4-6 feedings in a day. Read up on when and how to move baby to a 4 hour schedule here.
  • 4 Montths: Baby might be ready for blanket time.
  • 5 Months: You might want to start teaching sign language to baby. This can be done at any point forward.
  • 5 Months: Teething can start to impact sleep.

See 3-6 Month Baby Index for posts and more information on this age range.

Babywise schedule cheat sheet pinnable image

6-9 Month Age Range

Here are the milestones to expect in the 6-9 month old age range.

  • 6 Months: Baby will likely be ready to start solid foods. Consult with your doctor.
  • 6 Months: Baby might be ready to move to two naps. Some are not ready until older. Average is 8 months.
  • 6 Months: Have 4-5 nursings in a day.
  • 6 Months: Naps will be 1.5-2.5 hours each. The third nap can be short (about 45 minutes).
  • 6 Months: Independent play will be 15-30 minutes in length once baby can sit independently.
  • 6 Months: Discipline will be needed if it hasn’t been already. Discipline means to guide and correct, not to hurt.
  • 7-8 Months: Most babies will start finger foods in this age range.
  • 8 Months: Independent play will be 30-45 minutes in length for the crawler.

See 6-9 Month Baby Index for posts and more information on this age range.

9-12 Month Age Range

Here is what to expect with your Babywise baby when 9-12 months old.

  • 9 Months: Most babies will be at two naps a day, though some will still have that short third nap.
  • 9 Months: Discipline will be more of a part of your day as your baby becomes more mobile and more curious. Discipline means to correct and guide.
  • 9 Months: Some people go to 3 liquid feedings a day. I stick with 4 until beyond one year old.
  • 9 Months: You might have a snack at some point in the day. A logical place would be after the afternoon nap to hold baby over so baby can eat dinner with the family.
  • 12 Months: Independent play will be up to 60 minutes.

Get the whole series

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
Get a free printable Babywise Schedule Cheat Sheet

Babywise Schedule Chart Cheat Sheet

I have put all of this into a two-page document for you that you can print (I would print front and back and make it one page). It is pictured below. You can get your copy by clicking on this link. This is a great Babywise schedule chart cheat sheet that is printable.

Babywise timeline and what to expect in the first year
Screenshot of the FREE timeline I made for you

Sleep Training

If you are going to try to meet these milestones, you are going to need to think about sleep training. Your baby will not be able to make it through sleep transitions and complete a sleep cycle if your baby cannot fall asleep independently. I have a lot of sleep training posts on this blog. Here are some great starting points:

Sleep Training According to Babywise

Sleep Training According to Babywise helps you understand what Babywise sleep training is and what it isn’t.

Gentle Sleep Training

If you know you would like a gentle sleep training method, read my post on Gentle Sleep Training: The Four S’s.

Sleep Training Resources

This Big List of Sleep Training Resources post gives you all of the blog posts, studies, and books you need to do sleep training your way.

Sample Schedules

If you are looking for sample schedules used by real Babywise babies, I have you covered! I have tons of sleep schedules and sample schedules on this blog. Find the month you are looking for below.

Overview of the your Babywise baby's first year. Know how many feedings to have, when to drop feedings, how many naps baby should have, and how long to expect naps to be.

Related Posts

The Babywise Mom Book of Naps

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Overview of the your Babywise baby's first year. Know how many feedings to have, when to drop feedings, how many naps baby should have, and how long to expect naps to be.

What to expect the first year with Babywise graphic