At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

I see everyone talking about their kids' 1st, 2nd, 3rd naps, or talking about the bedtime routine, or the 'last feeding.'

Maybe I'm an idiot (strong possibility), but I have NOOOOOOOOO idea when my DD's last feeding is, or when her 2nd nap is. I just go by her schedule...

Is that a bad idea? Should I be tracking her schedule and moving to put her on one?

I have no idea how many bottles she has a day, how many ounces she eats, how many wet or poopy diapers she has, etc. I have just been feeding her when she's hungry, and taking everything in stride.

Am I doing something wrong here...?

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

well you aren't doing anything wrong but if you want to have a visual of your DC's own schedule or remember what her last feeding was then of course you should be tracking it. When I came home from the hospital I wrote down every feeding, how long it lasted, from which side LO ate from, every dirty diaper and wet diaper.... by week 6-8 i wasn't tracking diapers anymore or which side she fed from or for how long she ate, because it didn't matter anymore BUT i still to this day track when she eats. I noticed that even though I fed her on demand, she usually got hungry at similar times each day and then you can see when she usually has her last feeding for the night (because it was around week 8 that i started tracking how long she STTN). Now at 3.5 months I am going to start tracking naps and length of naps. her schedule is still all over the place, but i do track it.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

I still track feedings. Sometimes if she gets up in the middle of the night, say around 5am, and one of us feeds her, when she wakes again at around 7, she doesn't need to eat, but if we didn't write it down we might feed her again, KWIM? Like if I fed her at 5, DH shouldn't feed her again at 7.

Not that we starved her but we did try to stretch her out to get her on a schedule early on.

Since she's been on a schedule I have to say she's a SUPER easy baby.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

By 7 weeks DD started to sleep through the night. She is 12 weeks now and on the rare occasion (I know I'm jinxing myself) she does wake up in the middle of the night hungry. If your DD is eating every 3-4 hours it's easy to track. Does she go long stretches when sleeping, like 6+ hours?

We feed her around 7:30/8, sometimes later now, as her last bottle. As long as she doesn't wake at night, it's her last bottle. You don't need to wake her to eat, especially if she is getting enough throughout the day. We started giving DD 2 extra ounces in her last feeding because it was what she wanted. It took us a few nights to realize the regular 4 wasn't enough (she would not go to sleep at night and would suck her hands and just be overall fussy) so we would give an extra ounce, then another extra ounce until she was done. Our ped said this was fine. And she sleeps about 10-11 hours at night. Like I said, on the rare occassion she does wake in the middle of the night, but I feel like they are growth spurts so she's hungry. If you're able to do this you can definitely set a schedule.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

To the OP - do you breastfeed or FF?
I only know about FF b/c that's what I did with my 2 kids.
DC #2 is now 3+ mos (2nd kid is it sad I have no idea how many weeks old he is?) and I still track/write down each feeding. Just something I like to have and look back on. I did it with my daughter who's now 2.5 yrs and I look at her notebook now all the time to see where she was at compared to how DS is doing.
At 6-8 wks old, IMO if you feed them every 4 hrs during the day - they should give you longer stretches at night.
I have not ever gone by the baby's schedule. I set my own and it worked wonders with both kids. It just makes sense to me - it's what they do with the babies in the hospital...you feed on a schedule - every 4 hours. By 6 weeks old DS was going 10 hour stretches at night. DD didn't do that til she was 12 weeks old but I was waking her at 10pm for dream feedings and I wish I hadn't done that b/c I think she would have gone all night too.

Naps at 3 mos are random for me. I hear plenty of people who have their 3 mos old on a nap schedule but I get the nap schedule set by 6 mos. That's what happened with DD so I'm hoping DS will do the same. He definitely naps good now it just varies when he naps from day to day.

HTH.

PS - MANY believe in going by the baby's schedule but that doesn't work for me. I'm selfish and need my sleep at night and feeding on schedule all day has worked for me and my kids and they sleep wonderful at night. I hear people say never wake a sleeping baby but I completely disagree with that when it comes to daytime feeding. Just speaking from experience and what worked for me but obviously every baby is different.

ETA: One of the first questions my ped asks at checkups is "how many ounces is he getting a day?" - your ped doesn't ask that???

Message edited 11/29/2012 10:10:27 PM.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

I don't track anything. She cries when she's hungry and I feed her. She has a pretty loose daytime schedule. But her bedtime routine is the exact same every night and its been working. But as far as writing it all down, I didn't start it.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

I don't have a schedule and I never will! When I first went to the ped with a list of diapers and feedings he told me to throw it away! My ds is 3 months and eats whenever he wants. Absolutely no schedule during the day but he goes to bed around the same time and wakes up at night on a consistent basis so he is starting his own schedule! You are not a bad parent. I have no clue what time he last ate or if he finished the bottle! My lo always gained the appropriate amount of weight so I never stressed. I'm sure you are doing a great job too!

At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

Nope! I follow DS' cues. He let's me know when he's tired. He's 9.5mos and the happiest bby I know.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

the twins left the hospital on the nicu's 3 hour schedule. Every 3 hours they would eat, weather they showed feeding cues or not. We needed them to gain. Now at almost 13 months adjusted they are still eating almost every 3 hours, but now it is only during the day.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

I never had any of my children on a feeding or napping schedule while they were infants. My babies let me know when they were hungry or tired.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

My daughter is 4 weeks old. I keep a journal of her feeing times and how many oz she drinks

i also write when she poops

this is my 3rd child and if i dont write then i dont remember it

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

You're not doing anything wrong. Some of us just have more of a need to keep track of these things and try to see patterns. For us, we didn't initially track bottles, but once DD started having some feeding issues, we did write down the time of every bottle and number of ounces consumed. We never wrote down naps, diapers, etc. Because my daughter drinks so little, I mentally count her wet diapers during the day, so that I can be sure that she is urinating enough. At 6-8 weeks, her schedule was very inconsistent. She developed more of a schedule at about 4.5 months.

If you are the go with the flow type and can be relaxed about this and your baby is thriving and gaining weight, then more power to you. I'd love to be that relaxed!

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

My 6 week old does not have a schedule, but more of a routine. He will eat, be up for a little while and "play" (sit in bouncy, on playmat, etc) and then take a nap. When he wakes up, we do it all again. I have never written down/kept track of diaper changes or feedings. I BF on demand, so sometimes its 1.5 hours apart, sometimes its 3.5 hours apart.

ETA: as far as "bedtime"...whenever he gets tired around 9/10 I bring him upstairs and swaddle him and get him to sleep in the rock & play instead of the swing or on me.

Message edited 11/30/2012 8:43:32 AM.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

Message edited 11/30/2012 9:12:02 AM.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

We were on no sort of schedule at that age. Yes, I did mark down how many wet/dirty diapers she had but I didn't write the time. I did feel it was important since we were EBF to make sure she was having the correct # of wet/dirty diapers.

I kept track in my head when she ate last so I could attempt to feed her again in 3-4 hours if she didn't request before then, but that was a joke becuase she always nursed every hour or two.

There was no "nap schedule" and DD didn't STTN until she was a year old.

I always went by DD's lead. She did eventually get sorta predictable but nothing was really consistent until a year old. Luckily for you, this doesn't seem to be the norm!

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

6-8 weeks i was home ebf dd. at that age i had no schedule. she ate. stayed awake for a bit and went right back to sleep. i want to say 2-3 hour stretch.

at week 8 i started making sure i nursed her in her room no later than 830pm and put her in her crib. i did that so when i went back to work it wouldnt be a challange to get a routine going.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

Posted by lcherian

I never had any of my children on a feeding or napping schedule while they were infants. My babies let me know when they were hungry or tired.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

Thanks everyone - glad to see I'm not the only one!!!

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

At that point I started to try to put my DS on some sort of schedule, more like a routine. For example, bath at 6, bottle afterwards, up to bed in the crib at 8 something like that. He would be up again in a few hours for another bottle but that was how we started the routine.

Re: At 6-8 weeks did your DC have a 'schedule?'

DS is 25 weeks and still not on a schedule. He is a really good baby, but on a very rough schedule...

We're kind of laid back with him though, we dont try TOO hard for a schedule, sleeps in our bed if hes having a rough night. He's also BF for the most part so its kind of on demand - we dont keep track of those things either..