There are so many opinions when it comes to whether or not you should put your baby on a schedule. I feel like so many moms either think you have to go the Babywise or Contended Baby route, or do nothing at all and just let your baby dictate their own schedule – sleeping when they sleep and eating when they eat. While I do not think either of those options are right or wrong, it was not the way that I wanted to go. I knew that I wanted to have a general idea of what my baby was going to want and need at specific times, it just seemed less stressful that way! Putting my baby on a schedule seemed like the best option!
I just want to preface this in saying that I do not think anything less of moms who choose to go any of those routes above. I believe every family is different and needs to find what works for them. I am just sharing what worked in our family and what I learned in those first few weeks of being a mom. I have had countless questions on what we did with Jase because he is such a great sleeper and for the most part, a very happy baby. I wanted to share what we have done in hopes that it could benefit other families, as well as help me remember what we did for future kids.
When Jase was born, there were quite a few of my friends having babies around the same time. All of them were following Babywise pretty strictly in teaching their baby how to sleep. I had been given the book, as well as the Contended Baby book, and began skimming through them both when Jase was a newborn. I read over the concepts on how to encourage your baby to sleep, how to put baby on a schedule, and I studied the recommended schedules in the book.
And then I was completely stressed out.
How was I supposed to get my child to take a nap at the exact times in the book? How was I supposed to keep him awake at the exact times in the book? How was I supposed to keep my baby on a schedule that perfectly? I did not want to lay my child down in his crib for every nap. I wanted to be able to rock him to sleep. There was no way my child was sleeping without a pacifier. Trust me, I tried that the first night in the hospital. Three hours of screaming later, I gave up, and prayed it wouldn’t cause my child to never breastfeed properly. I was incredibly stressed out. I felt like if I couldn’t do it by the book then I might as well forget about helping my child sleep through the night. There was absolute no way that my baby was going to settle on a schedule or routine at this rate.
But, that was not true at all.
Since the books were stressing me out, my husband took them away. Literally, right out of my hands. He told me that I should not worry about getting everything to work like the book told me to, and just to do what I felt was best. There were things in the books that I thought to be really helpful, certain concepts that I thought I could definitely benefit from. I wanted to use those things, but not feel the pressure to follow the book line by line. But I also didn’t want to just go throughout the day without any type of structure because I wanted to know when I could expect Jase to be hungry, and when I could expect him to be ready to sleep. I felt like putting my baby on a schedule would help me figure it all out!
So, I decided that what was best for our family, for me as a mother, was to find the balance between the two. “Throwing out the books” and not stressing about following their schedules line by line was a huge load off of me. Realizing that I did not need to do things the way everyone around me was doing, and that I could find what worked for my family was the best thing I could have done.
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Putting baby on a schedule.
Putting your baby to a schedule can seem overwhelming when there are so many opinions and ways to do it. What really matters, is finding what works for your family. Be willing to try things, and adjust them to the needs of your family. Introducing your baby to a schedule can be as strict or as loose as you want it to be. You can rely on other people’s experience or advice, or you can just wing it. It truly is whatever works for you and your baby!
Over the next two weeks I want to share with you what worked for us in introducing our baby to a schedule. This week I will share some general guidelines and tips that we learned along the way. Next week I will share the more detailed schedules he followed. I hope that this serves as a good resource for you and something you can refer back to when introducing your baby to a schedule.
Like this post? You can find more just like it in my Baby’s First Year series.
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I'm so excited to read these posts! I'm right there with you – each family needs to do what's best for them. I love hearing what worked/didn't work for families!