HOW TO GET YOUR BABY ON A SCHEDULE | Realistic expectations from newborns through 1-year-old!

Month zero through three in your baby’s life is survival mode, so you should not be concerned about getting your baby on a schedule during the first three months.  To teach you everything about those first three months with your newborn, you should check out my Newborn Sleep Course.

HOW TO GET YOUR BABY ON A SCHEDULE | Realistic expectations from newborns through 1 year old!

After the first month is when I start telling parents to get into the eat, play, sleep routine. So first when your baby wakes up in the morning, you’re gonna change their diaper and feed them, and then they’re gonna play at two months old

Playtime could consist of tummy time, face-to-face time where you’re singing some songs, keep it simple! Your baby is only awake for a short amount of time. Once your baby is done playing is when your baby is going to sleep, thus eat play sleep.

The next thing that you can do, which you can start as soon as your baby is born, in order to help them reverse their day and night confusion is to start with morning routines and bedtime routines. So every morning, when your baby wakes up, open the curtains, let your child know it’s morning time, the sun is up,  and it’s time to start our day! It’s not going to be a quick flip of a switch for them to understand day and night, it’s going to take about eight weeks for them to make this adjustment in their circadian rhythm, which they actually don’t have a circadian rhythm right when they are born. So as they’re developing, your routines are going to help them understand the difference between day and night, which obviously you need to have a bedtime routine at the same time every night.

 A newborn’s bedtime routine should be around 5 to 10 minutes:

• Change diaper
• Put on their pajamas
• Put them in their sleep pack
• Give them hugs and kisses, and snuggles
• Bedtime!

4 Months Old

You might be noticing they may be able to stay awake a little longer. This is when sleep patterns change and babies’ sleep habits are turning into more adult-like patterns. This is when you’re gonna see that four month sleep regression, but really paying attention to your baby’s wake windows is going to be the biggest key to success. So expect to be one step forward two steps back and expect to have that sleep regression. But just keep moving along and that’s basically what months four and five is gonna look like naps are going to be inconsistent. They won’t be exactly the same length every single day and you should expect that; but it’s important to be putting them down at the same time every day!

6 Months Old

Your baby should be on a predictable three nap schedule every single day. This is the age when your baby should be falling asleep independently at bedtime and they should be sleeping through the night!

Now we’re jumping to between seven and nine months old!

 They’re most likely taking 1.5 to 2 hour naps every day and you don’t need that third nap now. Eventually, they’ll drop down to one nap a day. But for the most part between seven and nine months, once your baby is down to two naps they’re going to be on a very consistent schedule for quite a while. Of course, there’s gonna be days where maybe your baby takes a shorter nap or maybe they make up way earlier in the morning than usual. But if they are and they’re usually up at seven, keep them in their room quietly until seven a.m. And start their day when you actually take them out of their room, they need to stay in a quiet and non-stimulating environment.

So this is where I generally talk about having structured freedom and following the 80/20 rule, I have a whole video on the 80/20 rule right here.

THE 80/20 RULE: Keeping your baby’s sleep on schedule while being flexible and enjoying LIFE!

 So make sure you check that out, structured freedom is a term that I love to use for parents who are afraid of schedules and it’s probably not pertaining to you because if you’re reading this blog, you probably want your baby on the schedule. But freedom is basically the concept that when you know when your baby’s naps are going to be and their schedule is predictable. You have the freedom to go out during the day and do what you want in between their naps. 

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Missy Yandow

Pediatric Sleep Consultant

Potty Training Coach