How many of you other mamas out there are obsessed with your sleep? Before I had Ezra I literally slept 10+ hours a night & dreaded the sleep deprivation that newborns bring. From the moment I brought the little one home I was obsessed with figuring out how to get Ezra to sleep longer then 1-2hours at a time.
After an unhealthy amount of time spent on researching newborn schedules, reading books, blogs, and trying to implement different approaches with him, I finally made some traction on scheduling and mastered what worked best for our family.
I was pretty determined to create some type of routine for us to follow but I wanted to be flexible so I wasn’t obsessing anymore over tracking it and following a rigid plan. I created a loose schedule and by the time Ezra was somewhere between 2-3 months old I started feeling comfortable with the routine we had.
EAT.PLAY.SLEEP. Repeat.
We followed this same cycle all day everyday and we still do. We are flexible with it, I mean if the baby is hungry but it isn’t time to eat, I don’t deprive him. As he has gotten old we have extended the time between cycles and are now up to 4 hour cycles (he is 7 months old.) When he was still a newborn the schedule looked something like this…
2-2.5hr cycles
7am Nurse/bottle upon waking up
8:30-9:30am Nap #1 Nurse/bottle upon waking
11:00-12:00pm Nap #2 Nurse/bottle upon waking
1:30-2:30pm Nap #3 Nurse/bottle upon waking
4-5pm Nap #4 Nurse Bottle upon waking
6:30-7:30pm Nap #5 Nurse Bottle upon waking
9pm Nurse baby to sleep (We always incorporated a bedtime routine here that includes bath, massage, prayers & bible stories)
11pm Dream feed
3am Night Feed
Now that Ezra has followed this same cycle while just slowly increasing the time between naps he is now on a 2 nap schedule at 7 months old and it looks something like this…
7am Wake up Bottle
8:30am Breakfast Puree/Cereal
9:30-11am Nap #1, bottle upon waking
12pm Lunch Puree
1:30-3pm Nap #2, bottle upon waking
5pm Dinner Puree
5:45pm Bedtime Routine, last bottle before bed
Asleep by 6:15pm.
This loose schedule has been a life saver for our house. Ezra knows it so well he knows when it’s nap time and when he eats. As he continues to get older the schedule will adjust here and there. By the time he was 3.5-4 months old we sleep trained him and he dropped the night feeds and began sleeping straight through 12-13hrs a night. Sleep training is another post of another day but I am a huge advocate for sleep training. You don’t have to cry it out for hours on end for it to change your world.
I now can sleep my 10+hrs a night, most nights without interruption! Thank you Jesus!!
Katelyn A. Dean 