Have you ever thought about scheduling sleep? I never really did until I’d had a baby and at first even then the thought never occurred to me. For the first two months after my son was born neither of us got much sleep. He’d stay awake for up to fourteen hours at a time and so, of course, would I. After being awake all that time he’d go to sleep for a few hours then be up for another six or so until he’d finally pass out for seven or eight. I say pass out because he didn’t just go to sleep. You could tell that he was exhausted and he’d just drop off midscream sometimes. Getting so little sleep was making him cranky and wasn’t doing much for my disposition either. So at his two month well baby check up I asked his pediatrician if it was normal for a baby to sleep so little. He said it depended on the baby but that they usually slept a bit more. He also said because my son was growing well and seemed happy not to worry. I nodded but thought great, I’m never going to get any sleep again ever. Then I mentioned that every once in awhile he’d sleep for seven or eight hours when he was completely exhausted. POOF the pediatrician turned into my fairy godmother and Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo our sleep problems were over!

How was this magic accomplished? He said, “Have you thought about putting him on a schedule?” Well, no. I thought when babies cried you were supposed to pick them up. So when he cried I picked him up. He’d fall asleep I’d put him down then he’d cry and I’d pick him up. It was a vicious cycle. The doctor told me that after about three weeks babies learn that crying gets them attention and they’ll do it just to be picked up. The good thing about this little manipulation is that it means they can learn. If they can learn crying equals being picked up by mommy then they can learn to adapt to a sleeping schedule. What about crying? What should I do when he cried? The doctor looked at me with this look that said very clearly ‘that poor woman’ and then told me to let him cry. Hmmm. This sounded familiar and I remembered a book I’d bought but never gotten around to finishing called On Becoming Baby Wise.
Between the book the doctor and my personal experience here are a few tips on how to begin scheduling sleep for you and your little one:

• Schedule play, feeding, and sleep times
• Do not end with feeding
• Don’t let your baby fall asleep nursing or rocking because when they wake up alone (and they wake up several times a night) they don’t know how to put themselves back to sleep
• Wake him up after his nap time is over even if he is sleeping soundly (this one is hard for me but when I let him sleep the schedule gets thrown off and he gets cranky)
• If he isn’t asleep after half an hour or so rewrap him give him a snack then put him back down.

With all of this information racing through my head I went home and got to work on the sleeping schedule. We started it the very next day and aside from waking up hungry during his long stretch (yes, I feed him) everything has been going wonderfully for over a month now. We are both well rested and much happier!

Do you use a schedule for your baby? How is it working out for you?
Submitted By: Robin