Sample EASY routines, 3-6 months

[owelley]

I believe in an extra long wind down is ideal in the beginning.  I would say even 30 to 20 min before the actual nap time.  Also, somewhere in the General Sleep board, it is said that between 7 and 8 pm is the magic number of bedtime sleep for our lo.   I noticed that your lo is nodding of on the 7:30 pm feed.  I guess no matter what time they wake in the morning the magic number between 7 and 8 is still there!!  Here is something you could shoot for

7 - E
7:30 A
 8:40 wind down
9 -S
11 - E
11:30 - A
12:30- wind down
1 - S
3 - E
3:30 - A
between 4 and 5 catnap
5 - clusterfeed
5:30 - A
6:30 bedtime routine (bath, massage)
7- E
7:30 - BEDtime
11pm DF

[wheelera]

Hi everyone!  I haven't posted on this board in 2 years.  The last time I visited I was desperate to beat the 45 minute nap monster!  Now I have a precious new dd.  She is 3.5 months and our schedule is a little wacky because she has to work around her big sister's schedule, but this is a typical day for us:

8 - wake up, BF, dress
     A
10- nap
11:30-BF
         A
1:30 - BF (this one is usually a snack just to extend her wake time so that she will take a long 2nd nap)
2:00 - nap
4:00 - BF
          A
5:30 - short nap
6:00 - A
7:30 - BF, bath
8:30 - bed
11:00 DF

So far this is working out really well for her, but she is an angel baby and will just go with the flow on anything.  (She is God's gift to me after a spirited colicky first baby!)

Angela

[lauraeds]

For so long, I've perused this board, looking for the perfect schedule for my babies, and never thinking I'd be able to post my own. But it has happened, and we're in a great routine with great sleeping habits. It's almost like clockwork. It's simply taken time and patience.

7 a.m. - Eat
7:30 ish Activity: Get dressed, play together on mat, in Bumpo chairs. Watch mom while she eats breakfast, makes bottles for day.
9:00 a.m. - Sleep - they are always ready for a nap right at 9, or a little before. Nap in cribs for up to 2 hours.
11 a.m. - Eat
11:30 - Activity
1 p.m. - Sleep
3 p.m. - Eat
3:30 p.m. - Activity/Sleep: After the 3 p.m. feed, we let them set the schedule for sleep or play. They do not nap in their cribs, are often out on errands, etc. or stay in bouncy seats downstairs with me. I think the goal is to eventually make this all "awake" time, but they'll have to catnap now. If we're home, they're ususally asleep by 5 or 5:30.
7 p.m. - Eat. If they've been sleeping for just a few minutes before this feed, we'll let them sleep a little longer, but we never start this feed after 7:30.
7:30/8 - Bedtime routine (up to nursery, music, change clothes, rock, in bed)

For the past week, they've slept through until 7 a.m. We gradually cut back on the night feeding until it was later and later, and less and less formula. Eventually, it has gone away completely.

Daytime sleeps: At the beginning of trying to get this routine together, I  made sure they napped in their cribs 2x a day. Now, I make sure they nap at least 1x a day in the crib, and the other while they are in their stroller, car, etc.

[Carmela's Mom]

I finally feel comfortable posting our routine.  Joey is 4 months and 1 week old

E 8:00 a.m.
A
S 10-11 (I wake him)

A
E 12:00
A
S 1:00-3:30/4:00 (coincides with DD)

E 4:00
A
S 5:30-6:15

A
E 7:30
S 8:00 p.m.

NO DF!  He sleeps until morning

[Olismum]

Hi Rinajack

Just thought I'd give you a quick update on how we have been progressing the last few days. I have started doing the 3.5 hour routine except for the first feed which he only lasts 3 hours and last night I am pleased to announce we only had one feed at 1.30am! So now I am doing a routine that looks something like this:

7.00am Wake
7.30am Eat
8.30am Sleep

10.00am Wake
10.30am Feed
11.30am Sleep

1.30pm Wake
2.00pm Feed
4.00pm Sleep

5.00pm Wake
5.30pm Feed
6.30pm Bath
7.00pm Feed
7.15pm Bed

1.30am Feed

The 2 nights previous he woke at 1.30am also and then 4.30am but last night he made it to 6am wake up and didn't feed til 7am!!!! Best of all I went to bed at 9pm (having only had 3 hours sleep the night before - insomnia) So today I feel a million bucks. Due to the early start this morning I've obviously had to adjust it a little but its 11.30am and we are back on track.

Thanks so much for your advice on going the 3.5 hours instead of 4 it seems to be making a huge difference and he is feeding much much better.

[Harpa]

Hello there!
So, we've finally got a routine going that seems to be working for us:

07:00 E
         A
09:00 S

11:00 E
         A
13:00 S

15:00 E
         A

17:00 E
         A  (18:30 bath and massage)

19:00 E
19:30-20:00 S
23:00 DF
03:00 E

We've had to do this very slowly, starting by cutting out feeds before bedtime, but using all the other "tricks" to get baby to sleep. Then we started putting him in his crib awake with me half-lying in there with him, holding him and singing his song. Now I've got my hand on his chest and sing to him till he falls asleep. So we haven't got to the stage where we leave him to fall asleep on his own, but patience, the day will come   This seems to be working well for us, and most days his naps are very good and he only wakes up once in the night. But he still has days where he'll only sleep for about 45-60 minutes (on those days he usually gets a catnap after the 17:00 feed) and wakes up a couple of times in the night, but we don't feed him until it's at least 02:30 and never before 7 in the morning. We're keeping at it and it's getting better and better... Thanks for all the advice guys

[shimzy]

Well we found a 3.5 hour EASY that worked for my 16 wk old (will be officially 4 months old on dec 3, so in a wk and a half)

7am – eat 6.5oz
8:30 in bed by 8:30
Wakes at 10:15
10:30 eat 6.5oz
11:45am – in bed by 11:45
Wakes at 1:15-1:30pm
2pm eat 6.5oz
2:45 in bed by 2:45pm
Wakes at 4:15pm
5:30 eat 5.5 oz
5:45 nap in bed by 5:50pm (cat nap)
wake at 6:30 (ish)
bed by 8pm 6oz

[Lockie & Sam's Mummy]

lockie is 5.5mo today. he's ebf & has just started taking solids (only at breakfast). his routine - on a good day! - is as follows:

7:00am	wake & bf 5-10mins
8:00am	solids - rice cereal 2tsp
9:00am	nap
10:30am	wake & bf 5-10mins
12:45pm	nap
2:15pm	wake & bf 5-10mins
4:30pm	catnap
5:15pm	wake & bf 5-10mins
7:45pm	bf 5-10mins & bed at 8pm

[Lockie & Sam's Mummy]

lockie is 6.5mo today. he's ebf & is taking solids 3 times a day now. his routine - on a good day! - is as follows (though we may be increasing solids soon as he always wants more!):

7:00am wake & bf 5-10mins
8:00am solids - rice cereal 2Tbsp
9:00am nap
10:30am wake
11:00am bf 5-10mins
11:45am solids - vegetables 2Tbsp
12:30pm nap
2:00pm wake
3:00pm bf 5-10mins
4:00pm catnap
4:45pm wake
5:00pm bf 5-10mins
5:45pm solids - vegetables 2Tbsp
6:15pm bath, massage
7:00pm bedtime following bf top-up

[Wink's Marmy]

DD is 4 mo. in a few days. Here is our current routine. Times vary as I do not wake her up. But its usually around these times:

Wake 6:45
E 7 BF
S 8:45(mostly 2 hr. nap, sometimes less)
E 11 BF
S 12:45 (hour nap sometimes longer)
E 3 BF
S 3:45 (30-45 min. nap sometimes longer)
E 6 BF
S small catnap (i dont' let her go longer then 30 min. here)
E 7:30 BF
Bed by 7:45/8
Sleeps till 6:45 am

Recently started sleeping through the night. Doesn't do it every night, but most nights. I don't feed her if she wakes & she goes back to sleep OK. We just stopped the DF & that helped her sleep. She was waking up when we did it and she wasn't eating much.

Sometimes we have short naps (30-45 min.) and I just get her up & have a little AEAS the rest of the day. Trying to extend naps wears me out.

I hightly suggest switching to 4 hr. EASY if your LO is 4 mo. We are not entirely 4 hr. EASY yet with the evening feeds, but it has made all the difference: Naps got better, fussiness got better, and nighttime sleep got better.

[NikkiSurrey]

My DS is 4.5 months old.  We are easing from a 3.5 hour to 4 hour routine.  After 'faffing' with a 3 hour routine a little too long after DS turned 3 months, I got help on the EASY forum with this.  It's worked so well I wanted to share it.

S times shown are when he generally drops off to sleep.  He only gets naps longer than 45 mins when he's swaddled at home in his cot, and when I am well focused on his cues.  If he wakes up at 45 mins I try to get to the next E time with distraction, ie more A time, but it can be hard work (for both of us) so sometimes I feed early.

5am wake up and chat in cot (on rare occasions cries and needs soothing back to sleep)

E 7am bf 5-10 mins

A 8am/8.15 back into cot for quieter play and wind down

S 8.45am (1.5 - 2 hours)

E 10.45am bottle 8oz

A 12/12.15pm back into cot for quieter play and wind down

S 12.30/12.45pm (1.5 - 2 hours)

E 2.15/2.30pm bottle 6-8oz

A 4/4.15pm back into cot for quieter play and wind down

S 4.30pm/5pm (catnap 45 mins)

E 5/5.30pm bf snack 5 mins

A

Bath 6.30/6.40pm

E 7pm bottle 8oz (about to increase to 9oz!)

S 7.20/7.30pm bed

[VickyB20]

My twins are just coming up to 15 weeks and this is our routine.  The start time varies, depending on when everybody wakes up!  Usually we start around 7am.  We just transitioned to a four-hour (mostly) EASY in the last week.

E 7am - Wake and breastfeed
A
S 9am - Nap (I often have to go in after each sleep cycle to re-settle using ssh/pat and/or a dummy - but it's getting better!)
E 11am - Wake and breastfeed
A
S 1pm - Nap (sometimes a bit earlier)
E 3pm
A
S 5:30pm - Catnap for half an hour.  Brynley doesn't like sleeping now so I often let them have this nap in the buggy or the car whilst I run an errand.
E 6pm - They are so used to eating after waking that they normally want to eat after the catnap although I try to stretch them out till bed-time
A Bath, wind-down for bed
E 7pm - Top up breastfeed
S Between 7 and 7:30
E 10:30pm Dreamfeed

Sometimes they go through to half six or seven and sometimes I feed them in the night.

Vicky
x

[daisymelan]

5 months old - Ds2

E - 8 bf
S - 10
E - 12 bf
S - 2
E - 4 bf
S - 6
E - 7 bf
S - 8:30
DF - 10ish.. formula....  he sometimes wakes for it earlier, but that is usually an indicator of a bad night unless we do PU/PD and wait until 10 to feed.

We just got to this routine and sometimes he only naps for 1.5 hrs, sometimes he his A is only 1.5 hrs, but we just roll with it. 

He is still waking twice a night to bf.  The odd occassion we get only one waking.

[lyndsy_p]

I thought I'd post Grae's schedule at 5mnths she is EBF.

E 7 wake and feed
A 720-845 very low key, tummy time, swing
S 845-10
A 10-1030 jolly jumper

E 1030
A 1050-1200 tummy time
S 12-130
A 130-230 exersaucer, tummy time

E 230
A 250-345 practice sitting up, sometimes out for a walk in Baby Bjorn
S 345-430
A 430-545 swing chair, or high chair watching mommy prep dinner

E 545
A 6 bath, story
E 645 top up
S 7

DF 1045

Lyndsy