schedules

So my days have become utter chaos! I actually DREAD naptime now because of the fights that ensue! I never EVER get a break, I am doing this alone and I am thinking it might be time to try a schedule, I am going to put some ideas down on paper today and tomorrow.
Obviously it'd be very loose, and it will probably need some tweaking, but I am going to give it a try starting either Sun or Mon and give it a week and see if we have any improvements. My logic is that I am a 'schedule person' so maybe my girls are too since they were spawned from me. If they always know 'what comes next' then maybe they'll be happier and things like naptime might get easier..... Because bedtime USUALLY is not as big of a fight as the rest of the day and I am thinking it may have something to do with our routine.
There is too much to try and fit in each day and I am getting extremely overwhelmed.

I have been with them 24/7 for 4 months I am fairly confident in knowing their cues and habits. I am obviously not going to deny my girls food or naps if they get hungry/tired before their scheduled time but I need to sort of 'outline' our day before I go crazy and throw myself into a snowbank.

So I am wondering who has/had their 4 month olds on a schedule and what it looked like? How is it working out for you?

Any and all suggestions are welcomed!!

Thank you!!

 

Sorry you are having such a rough time. My advice about schedules is try and stay "breezy." If you have in your mind that this must work (like I did) you could be in for a few rough patches. I would say at 4 months assuming they were born close to term you might be looking at solidifying the morning nap about 2 hours or less of awake time from the time they got up. That is what came to for us first but it wasnt until about 6 months or so that I would say that they were predictable for it. Are you doing a feeding schedule or on demand? We did a bit of both until about 4 months and then they also started to get more predictable for bottles too.

I think between 4 and 6 months was the best time for us to start getting out and about too and working on naps and bottles. I hope this helps a bit. Hang in there!!

 

This is as good as it gets for us as far as a routine or "schedule". Mine are in daycare now and I see this replicated in their reports from there as well most of the time.

6- 8 am: Wake, eat, play, dress, play (on daycare days they wake at 6 am and on days they are with me on Fri-Sun I take them back to bed with me after that early morning feed and we sleep a bit more so no play, but more cuddling).

8-11 am: The morning nap is usually a good long one esp for dd. DS tends to wake up before her and play a bit more then eats and she'll wake and play then eat then they both play.

11-2 pm: Another nap is desirable at around 12 and it is usually shorter. An hour for DD and only 30-40 min for DS. They wake and play and then eat again around 2-3.

2-5 pm: This is when things fall apart and we don't get a good nap again until around 5 pm and it is short. Daycare has caused some of this for us, but they start to fuss a bit more in the late afternoon. In a perfect world I would like another nap around 3.

5-7 pm: This is wind down time; home from daycare, hang out together, eat and get ready for bed. If they've been at daycare they are exhausted and may go to sleep for the night as early as 7. If they've been with me, slept late and had good naps they'll stay up a bit later until their 8 pm meal and then sleep.

There are all kinds of variables for us and I am very flexible with it. The most important thing for me like PP has been that good long morning nap. It sets the tone. When I take them to daycare now we leave them in their car seats after they fall asleep in the car and they get a good long nap and it helps so much.

Also, we sleep them where ever. We always have and haven't tried to transition to their cribs yet. I'm not too hung up on it and really not willing to push it. Sometimes they fall asleep in there and that's ok. Naps can be had in bouncy seats, swings, pac n plays, etc at our house. At night they sleep in our room still in the co-sleeper and bassinet/pnp.

HTH!

 

I too THRIVE on schedule and have had mine on a schedule as soon as I possibly could... this is what works for us and we stick pretty close to it 98% of the time....

6am - wake up, eat, then play (although this morning it was 6:30 YEAH)
8am- 9:30am- nap
9:30 - play
10am - eat then play
11:30 - 1:30 - nap
1:30 - eat then play
3:30 - 4pm - cat nap
4pm - play, eat, play
6pm- start bedtime routine babies down by 6:30pm

I hope that's helpful, I can tell you that having a schedule (even if it's just a guidline) has SAVED my SANITY!

Good luck!!!

 

This might help!

[Wiki]Sleep_Schedules[/Wiki]

 

so I say schedule and my girls FINALLY take a decent nap without too much of a fight!! Even my '30min napper' has been asleep for an hour and a half... and counting!!!

I was able to get the trash together AND eat!!! :icon_eek:

I love hearing about how others have had some success with this, its very encouraging! Thank you!!

 

I had mine on a schedule at 4 months and our lives got a lot less crazy. Just be sure to make it work for YOU.

 

Our schedule looks something like this.

8:00 we wake up and get dressed for the day
8:30 bottle
9-9:30 down for a nap
10:30-11 wake up and play
11:30 bottle
12:30-1:00 down for a nap
1:30-2:00 up from nap and play
2:15 bottle
3:15-3:45 down for a nap
4:30 up and play
5:00 bottle
6-6:30 down for a nap
7-7:30 up to play
7:45 bottle
9:00 nap
10:00 little play change diapers
10:30 last bottle
11:00 bed

They are never awake for more then 2 hours of a time. I love having them on this schedule cause I know when I can get things done. I hope to be able to put them in bed earlier sometime soon. I have tried but then they miss the last feeding and then they wake up at 3:00 am. I'd rather they sleep 9 hours straight so that I can get my sleep so this really works for us. Hope this helps

 

Our schedule pretty much has looked like this for the last month (on a good day):

7:30 wake up
8:00 bottles
8:30 bath
9:30-11 nap
11:00 solids
12:30 bottles
1:00-2:30 nap
3:00 bottles
4:15-5:00 nap (this one can be variable, hard to get DD to go down)
5:00 solids
6:30/6:45 bottles
7:00/7:15 bed

DD sometimes gets up around 11 for a bottle and DS sometimes around 5:30/6 a.m. but otherwise pretty much stick to this, life has gotten so much easier now that they nap together at semi consistent times.

 

Weve been on a schedule since we brought them home from nicu.
eat 3, 6, 9, 12
they stay up for 1 1/2 hours from their wake up time (at 3 5 9 12) then down for a nap
during their wake up time it takes aprox 1 hour to do the feeding, diapering etc. so they get 1/2 hour of play time.

been working great for us.