An Infant On a Schedule (upon request)

A dear friend of mine gave me some great advice when I was pregnant with my first child (now a whopping 4 years old). She told me about a method of feeding, playing and putting a baby to bed that would help the entire family deal with a raise a baby to be happy, healthy and able to comfort him or herself to sleep each night. This wonderful friend now has happy baby number 6 on the way and each of them were parented on this principal of "Parent-Directed Feeding."

I was not so good at it my first time around, My hubby and I talked about "scheduling" ALOT in our house, but we didn't do EVERYTHING we were suppose to do ALL the time (or really most of the time). But when our now oldest was about 4 or 5 months old we finally got the hang of it. Son number 2 we were much better from the get go and, even with reflux, started sleeping through the night at about 12 or 13 weeks old. We are now onto munchkin number 3, my princess, and she is almost 6 weeks old now. Already we have done better this time than with number 2 (practice makes perfect you know). She is sleeping about 5-7 hours every night already and probably would go longer if I let her.

Here's my take on the whole Parent-Directed Feeding (PDF) situation...

I believe that a child is born into an already existing family, husband and wife. Therefore that child needs to learn that s/he will be brought into the world around the foundation and lifestyle that the husband and wife have already laid down. For my particular family we are very flexible with our schedule. Sometimes we go to bed at 8 and other nights we go to bed at 11. So our flexibility is worked into our child's routine. The other concept is that she eats then wakes then sleeps, a lot of people switch the last two and let their children sleep then be awake. which is hard on the metabolism and also it makes them hungry sooner since they are not exerting energy right after they eat they do not sleep as long, so they wake up and at the very first feeling of hunger they cry since they are awake so mom feeds them. If they play first, not only do they sleep longer after that, they don't wake up at that very first sign of hunger they usually sleep right through it.

I start my princess's day off whenever she wakes up, it could be 6am it could be 9am, I let her sleep after that middle of the night feeding until she wakes up. today she woke up at 8am so I will use that for this purpose.
This is what I do for my almost 6 week old

8am-full feed (no snacking)
wake time (15-45)
change diaper
back to bed

11am-full feeding
wake time (15-45 minutes depending on the time of day the tired cues she gives me)
change diaper
back to bed

2pm-full feeding
wake time (this one is usually very short as she wears out quickly in the afternoon)
change diaper
back to bed

5pm-full feeding
wake time
change diaper
back to bed

8pm-full feeding
I only let her stay up about 10-15 after this feeding
change diaper
back to bed

11pm-full feeding
change diaper
straight back to bed

4-6am (varies nightly)-full feeding
change diaper
straight back to bed

Sometimes I change her as soon as she gets up, but I ALWAYS change her before going down for bed. When she gets a full feeding and has been changed, then if she cries I know she is clean and I know she is not hungry. Sometimes I go 3.5 hours if I feel she needs more sleep or if we are out and about and I need to get home, or if I know we will be soing things later that warrant me waiting an extra 30 minutes earlier on in the day. That's what I do...I've found my kids take naps for longer (my 4 year old still takes an hour nap everyday) they wake up happier, they learn that food is offered at certain times during the day and snacking all day is not an option (this helps and works even when they are older, my kids rarely are hungry because they have learned to eat ALL their food when they are given it), they also learn to soothe themselves to sleep at night, thus making for sleeping through the night at a much early age than "demand fed babies." I like it and if you have anymore questions about it I would love to answer them.
God Bless