Birth-1 week (8 feedings in 24 hours)
6:00 am Feeding followed by a short amount of wake time
9:00 am Feeding followed by a short amount of wake time
12:00 pm Feeding followed by a short amount of awake time
3:00 pm Feeding followed by a short amount of awake time
6:00 pm Feeding followed by a short amount of awake time
9:00 pm feeding and then put right back to sleep (helps baby differinciate day and night)
12:00 am feeding and then put right back to sleep
3:00 am feeding and then put right back to sleep
1 week-4 weeks (8 Feedings in 24 Hours)
Continue with the above schedule but allow for longer wake periods during the day to.
5 Weeks-8 Weeks (8 Feedings in 24 hours, but let baby wake up when they are hungry for the middle of the night feeding. I also pushed my 12:00 am feeding back earlier and earlier to allow for a longer amount of time for the baby to sleep at night. To do this I went back to a combination 2.5/3 hr schedule. By week 6 her schedule looked like this:
6:00 am Feeding
9:00 am Feeding
11:30 am Feeding
2:30 pm Feeding
5:00 pm Feeding
8:00 pm Feeding
10:30 pm Feeding
3:00-4:00 am Feeding ( baby would wake up on her own to let me know when she was hungry.
Weeks 8-10, 7 feedings in 24 hrs (For me is was about 9 weeks when she dropped her middle of the night feeding and slept all night. To help her acheive the goal of sleeping throught the night I first sought to eliminate the middle of the night feeding and then sought to elimiminate the last feeding of the night which brought her down to 6 feedings within just about 2 weeks. To better explain I will show you her scheudle at about 8-10 weeks and then at about 10-14 weeks.
6:00 am Feeding
6-7:30 wake time in crib. She would just play by herself!
7:30-9:00 Nap
9:00 am Feeding
9:00-10:30 Wake Time
10:30-11:30 Nap
11:30 am Feeding
11:30-1:00 Wake Time
1:00-2:30 Nap
2:30 pm Feeding
2:30-4:00 Wake Time
4:00-5:00 Nap
5:00 pm Feeding
5-6:30 Wake time
6:30-8:00 Nap
8:00 pm Feeding, then dress for bed and put right back to bed for the night
8:00-10:30 Nap
10:30 pm Feeding
10:30 put back to bed for the night.
Weeks 10-14, 6 Feedings (It turned out to be really easy to go from 7 to 6 feedings, I just went back to a 3 hr schedule and pushed the last feeding back until it ended at 9:00.
6:00 am Feeding
6-7:30 wake time in crib. She would just play by herself!
7:30-9:00 Nap
9:00 am Feeding
9:00-10:30 Wake Time
10:30-12:00 Nap
12:00 pm Feeding
12:00-1:30 Wake Time
1:30-3:00 Nap
3:00 pm Feeding
3:00-4:30 Wake Time
4:30-6:00 Nap
6:00 pm Feeding
6-7:30 Wake time
7:30-9:00 Nap
9:00 pm Feeding, then dress for bed and put right back to bed for the night
Weeks 14-20, 5 feedings, 3-4 elongated naps (This was the hardest transition, mostly because of the naps. Babywise suggest that a baby have 3 naps that range from 1.5-2.5 hrs at this age. My daughter wanted to take like 8 45 minute cat naps during the day and it was a hard habbit to break. It wasn’t until I realized I needed to drop another feeding that the napping situation got better.)
6:30 am Feeding (note I made her wake time a little later to account for not having too many 4 hr. stretches between feedings)
6:30-8:00 Wake Time
8:00-10:00 Nap (ideally she wouldn’t still have needed this nap except for the fact that it was hard to entertain her the entire time this early in the morning without her falling back to sleep in her own).
10:00 am Feeding
10:00-Noon Wake Time
Noon-1:45 pm Nap
1:45 pm Feeding
1:45-3:45 Wake Time
3:45-5:30 Nap
5:30 pm Feeding
5:30-7:20 Wake Time
7:30- 8:30 cat nap (The book says the last nap is generally a cat nap. Which hers happened to be, but it wasn’t butted up right next to her final feeding because I couldn’t get her to stay up long enough).
8:30-9:00 more awake time
9:00 pm Final Feeding
Weeks 20-28, 4-5 feedings, 2-3 elongated naps, Introducing Rice Cereal, then Baby Foods (during this time I stuck with 5 feedings instead of going down to 4 in order to better monitor her food intake. Since baby food was new to me I wanted to make sure she was still getting enought breast milk. Plus I didn’t want to risk diminishing my milk supply.)
6:30 am Breakfast Feeding (Offer one breast first, then the baby food, then finish by offering the second breast.
6:30-10:00 Wake Time
10:00 am Feeding – Breast Milk only
10:00-Noon Wake Time
Noon-2:00 pm Nap
2:00 pm Lunch Feeding (offer one breast first, then the baby food, then finish by offering the second breast).
2:00-4:00 Wake Time
4:00-5:30 Nap
5:30 pm Dinner Feeding (offer one breast first, then the baby food, then finish by offering the second breast).
5:30-7:30 Wake Time
7:30- 8:30 cat nap (The cat nap may or may not be eliminated at this time. If it is you could adjust your schedule to move bedtime up a little earlier. Remember if you are breast feeding to not let your baby sleep longer than 10 hours on account of your milk supply).
8:30-9:00 more awake time
9:00 pm Final Feeding Breast Milk only
Weeks 28-52 weeks or until you decide to wean your baby. 4 feedings, 2 elongated naps (Please note that you do not have to go down to 4 feedings. You can continue with 5 feedings until you decide to wean your baby. Keep in mind that the goal at 1 year of age is for your child’s meals to line up with the rest of the families, so gradually decreasing a feeding along the way will help!)
7:00 am Breakfast Feeding (Offer one breast first, then the baby food, then finish by offering the second breast.
7:00- 10:00 Wake Time
10:00-11:30 Nap
11:30 am Lunch Feeding (offer one breast first, then the baby food, then finish by offering the second breast).
11:30-2:00 Wake Time
2:00-4:00 Nap
4:00 pm Dinner Feeding (offer one breast first, then the baby food, then finish by offering the second breast).
4:00-8:30 Wake Time
8:30 pm Final Feeding Breast Milk only
Goal: 1 year old, 3 Feedings, 2 elongated Naps, Weaned off breast milk
7:00 am Breakfast
7:00-10:30 Wake Time
10:30-12:30 Nap
12:30 noon Lunch
12:30-4:30 Wake Time
4:30-6:30 Nap
6:30 pm Dinner
6:30-8:30 Wake Time
8:30 pm Bedtime.
