Schedule for 4 mo. olds

Right now I am going crazy. Since they were born, it always seems like one is awake or hungry or needs holding or changing. I am about to loose it. I really have no time for anything. I have two older kids too that need me.

1. What age did everyone start schedules?

2. How do you go about putting them on a schedule or do they do it on their own?

3. Can some of you please list what your babies schedule looked like at this age?

Thanks for any help.

 

I have started a loose schedule at about 2 1/2 months, but my babies were born full term. It's really just in the last week (Christmas was our big turning point), that they are pretty consistently sleeping and awake at the same time. I am a big HSHHC advocate, and have just started laying them down after 1.5 hours of being awake. We do a play, eat, sleep routine and it works well. If one twin wakes up from a nap and the other is still sleeping, I wake the other (assuming the nap has been at least an hour long). It doesn't work all the time, but most days they sleep up in their cribs at around the same time. With your two only being 2 months adjusted it may take longer to fall into place. Start with the morning routine/nap and the rest will come (at least that's the premise of HSHHC, the morning nap develops first).

 

QUOTE(moontwins @ Jan 2 2008, 03:30 PM) [snapback]554284[/snapback]
1. What age did everyone start schedules?
2. How do you go about putting them on a schedule or do they do it on their own?
3. Can some of you please list what your babies schedule looked like at this age?


At that age, my primary concern was just keeping them on the feeding schedule
they were on when discharged from the hospital.....which was every three hours.

I tried to keep them as content as possible in between feedings; which often meant
doing the baby shuffle (hold one, then the other, put both on floor, put one in swing,
put one in bouncy seat, put both in bouncy seat, etc......repeat.......)

I followed the sleeping suggestions outlined in Dr. Weiss's book "healthy sleep habits happy baby"
But I did not do that until they started to sleep through the night (on their own, no cio) then
I started to give them a napping schedule in addition to the feeding one.

I actually kept track of all this, so I can tell you that in July 05 (at four months)
this is what a typical day was like:

Up at 6:30am, bottle at 7:00am
down at 8:15am, up at 11:00am
bottle at 11:15am, down at 1:00pm
up at 2:15pm, bottle at 2:30pm
down at 3:20pm, up at 4:30pm
bottle at 4:45pm, down at 6:00pm
up at 6:45pm, bottle at 7:45pm
bed at 8:45

So five bottles a day, three hours apart, snoozes in between.....about two weeks
later I went to four bottles a day (more ounces per feeding)

Hope this helps you out!

 

I activly worked to get the boys on a 3 hour feeding schedual around 10 weeks -- when we got to around 2h45min between feeding they all the sudden jumped up on how much they wanted at a feeding -- and moved on there own to a 4 hour schedual.

Our naps are WAY messed up right now, but previously their day looked like this

5:30-6am - up
6am - bottle
6:15-7am play (gym, singing reading book etc)
7am - nap
9:45-10am - up
10am -bottle
10:15-11:45/12noon- play
12-1:45/2pm - nap
2pm - up and bottle
2-4pm - play
6pm = bath/bottle
6:30-6:45 - swaddle/bed

 

Ok, now that they are down for a nap I have more time to post our schedule, this is the "ideal" not always what happens:

7-7:30 wake up, get dressed and cuddle
8:00 bottle, then cuddle
9:00-10:00 nap
10:00-11:00 playtime (tummytime, playmat, exersaucer, bouncy, mommy time)
11:00 bottle
11:30-1:30 nap
1:30 bottle
2:00 playtime
3:00-4:30 nap
4:30 bottle
5:00 playtime (usually a little grumpy by now)
6:00 bathtime
6:30 bottle
7:00 bed (usually some tears, but they eventually go down with some comforting)
10:30 we wake them for dreamfeed
4:00 a.m. (sometimes DD up for bottle, sometimes she sttn, DS usually sttn)

HTH!

 

Since your twinkies' adjusted age is only about 2 months, it may be some time before their patterns get more predictable. Daytime sleep will get more regular around 12-16 weeks adjusted age.

I've never tried to put my babies on a schedule - I've been feeding them whenever they're hungry and putting them down for naps whenever they're tired since the beginning. Over time, their demands have gotten very predictable. I've always found it much easier to just give them what they need when they need it than to try to keep a hungry or tired baby waiting until the clock says they can get what they need.

I have tried to keep them in sync with each other from the beginning, though. My rules in the first couple months were:

-When one is hungry, feed both (at the same time or one right after the other) even if it means waking a sleeping baby
-Try to put both down to sleep at the same time.

It's worked out really well.

Good luck, I hope things get less crazy soon! :hug99:

 

I have kept mine on a schedule from the very begining. I think it helps to keep happy kids. YOu should still be feeding every 3/4 hours. They should be starting to be awake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. For almost a month now this has been my babies schedule
7-9 wake, feed, change, play
9-11 sleep
11-1 wake, feed, change, play
1-3 sleep
3-5 wake, feed, change, play
5-7 sleep
7-9 wake, feed, change, play
9 go down for the night
They should be able to sleep from 9 pm to 7 am without waking to eat.