starting a schedule?

Hey guys!
i have 9 wk. old B/G twins, and we're currently going 2-3 hrs. during the day, 3-4 at night for feeds, etc. NO real schedule or anything, and i know not to expect one so early! just feeding and sleeping when they want.
HOWEVER!!!!! I cannot WAIT until we can get on some type of routine. At what age did you guys start to get more order to the madness and any tips on how to start doing it?
I'm currently still at home for the next 3 weeks, then back to work parttime. I am very worried about getting them both ready and me out the door on time to get to the babysitter's and work!!! a schedule would help so much. any tips would be MOREthan welcome!!!
well, little lincoln is now screaming, so i better go and will check back later!
Dee

 

Hey guys!
i have 9 wk. old B/G twins, and we're currently going 2-3 hrs. during the day, 3-4 at night for feeds, etc. NO real schedule or anything, and i know not to expect one so early! just feeding and sleeping when they want.
HOWEVER!!!!! I cannot WAIT until we can get on some type of routine. At what age did you guys start to get more order to the madness and any tips on how to start doing it?
I'm currently still at home for the next 3 weeks, then back to work parttime. I am very worried about getting them both ready and me out the door on time to get to the babysitter's and work!!! a schedule would help so much. any tips would be MOREthan welcome!!!
well, little lincoln is now screaming, so i better go and will check back later!
Dee

 

I started scheduling Nicole and Danielle around 8 weeks. It was a very flexible schedule but definitely a schedule. I would feed them every 3ish hours and would put them down for naps at the same time everyday. I would napped them downstairs in their swing or bouncy seat if they wouldn't sleep in their crib. I always put them down sleepy but still awake. Then around 10 weeks I started only putting them in their cribs to sleep and around the same time everyday. They learned pretty quickly what the schedule was and by 4 months old no matter what they were doing when it was time for a nap they would be sleeping and start to fuss! It was so funny. I could run a clock by them. I took their cues about when to nap them and when to feed them and just stuck with it. So if you start to notice any type of pattern or any time they start to get sleepy try to stick with it for a couple weeks and they will normally go along with it because it is following their pattern. I also had to be very flexible with changing their schedule depending on if they were ready to drop a nap or if they were going through a growth spurt or teething or shots. But it worked pretty well. Good luck! Hopefully by the time you go back to work you can have some type of schedule working.

 

We were on a pretty good 3 hr. feeding schedule from the hospital. It all depended on what time we were "up for the day" so to speak. But Alison was on a strict schedule in the NICU and we kept Martin on it with her. That's as much scheduling as I did till 4 mos. and then I started controlling wake up time and watched for sleepy signs for the first nap (1 - 1.5 hrs.) and that's what I concentrated on first. I did that the same everyday and eventually it fell into a 9 and 1 nap schedule.

Good luck!! You'll need a good schedule eventually. It's really hard right now!

 

Just in the last two weeks (at four months) have I been able to get a loose schedule going. Introducing solids helped me plan our day out a little better. Before that it was quite chaotic.

 

We've just recently started a schedule, and I do use the term very loosely. Basically what I did was try to write down the time that they ate, slept, woke up, stayed up, etc for a few days and then just fit somewhat of a routine around that. We're pretty good through a morning nap but sometimes the afternoons still get a little hairy. Evenings are fairly structured now, though. It's been really hard for me because I'm a very, very (almost to the point of ocd) structured, organized person, so I am glad that they are ready for this step now. My daughter was on a schedule a lot sooner, and I've had a bit of a hard time waiting on them to really be ready. They are now in their own bedroom at night and for most of their naps, except for a little catnap (usually 15 or 20 min) in the morning. Bed around 7:30 and then I go in and nurse them around 10 right before we go to bed. They do still wake up around 4 am then again at 7, but I can handle just one night feeding for now! By the way, they'll be 3 mos old on Wed.

 

I'm in the exact same boat as you...heading back to work in two weeks. I've been trying to put them on a "schedule" since the beginning. I shoot for close to three hours for feedings during the day starting at 6am every single morning. We also have a bedtime routine. I'm in the process of getting them to sleep thru the night. They are still waking up several times at night, and I don't know how I'll function at work if it continues!

Good luck! Shannon

 

I was reading some of the sleep habits books that say eat, wake, sleep is the cycle to try to get them on....but mine actually like to have a bottle before nap in the afternoon. Once I tried that, I finally got some sort of schedule going. It took my boy a looooooooooooong while to take to the napping schedule. I would just do it anyway, and often had deal with him by himself. He eventually got it, and now they both nap twice a day, the length is still variable. The 'trying to get them on a schedule' days were long and rough here. It was a very frustrating period.

I guess my point is you can try things and change it if it isn't working.