Alright mamas, if there’s one thing you should know about us – it’s that we’re huge proponents of the Babywise Schedule & Sleep Training Method. If there’s one resource we could recommend for you to LIVE BY in your journey into new mommy-hood it would be Babywise. Because nothing steals your sanity (and everything else you have in you) like sleep deprivation and being at the beck and call of a 10-pound extra appendage. And who could argue with every super mom I know raving about getting their infants to sleep through the night by 8 weeks old, some even 6! YES PLEASE! So when we talk about THE schedule, we’re talking the BABYWISE schedule.

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The Babywise Method

To give you a SUPER brief rundown of what the Babywise schedule is here are some bullet points. If you are familiar with and understand the importance of the Babywise method, you can skip to the next section.

A Brief Summary

1.Babywise is centered around developing a good routine (aka feeding and sleeping habits) for your child. This is primarily done through a methodology called Parent-Directed Feeding (PDF). PDF is the midpoint between hyper-scheduling where time is the only factor (aka we only eat at this time regardless of whether you’re hungry or not, because you need to be a freaking schedule dang it!) and the “I meet your needs whenever you tell me you need them” approach (aka the just born infant knows best what he or she needs and mom has no ability or ground to use her input and keenly developed/designed intuition in caring for her child). To put it simply, PDF takes into account both the mother’s ability to manage, care for and properly guide her child into a schedule that is best to provide as much sleep as baby needs AND the growing, evolving and ever-changing needs of said infant which may vary in different daily circumstances and general stages of life.

2. The general structure for the Babywise schedule is FEED-WAKE-SLEEP. The baby eats, has a period of wake time and then naps. This is extremely important because it ensures the baby does not get in the habit of being fed to sleep, only to wake very soon after because not enough time was spent being stimulated. It also allows the baby to learn to fall asleep on her own, with minimal intervention from the parents. In essence, the point of FEED-WAKE-SLEEP schedule is to ensure the baby gets a full feed at the scheduled time, spend a sufficient amount of time awake/being stimulated, and gets a full nap/night-time sleep as often as possible. Having a structure like this allows the parent to effectively rule out any factors that may be causing baby not to get a full nap/night-time sleep. Without a structure like this, mom would just be guessing.

3. This FEED-WAKE-SLEEP schedule is modified as baby grows to allow for decreased number of feedings/nap times and longer wake times. It also paves way for babies to sleep through the night fully by the time they’re 7-8 weeks old. It allows hunger and sleep patterns to stabilize, as guided by the well-equipped parent.

Getting baby on an eat-wake-sleep schedule (AKA the Babywise Schedule) is key. Subscribe to the Newlymoms and get a FREE Printable Babywise Schedule HERE!

The 3 Things That Made It Work For Me

Now that you know a little bit about the Babywise method, here are the 3 main things that made it work for me with my first.

1. Follow the schedule as close as possible for as long as possible without deviating.

First of all, let me just say that we found out through a mom friend of 4 littles about the life-saving Babywise method when Baby K was already 5 weeks old. And we thought we had blown the grace period of implementation. BUT, to our glorious surprise – babies actually love structure and being on schedules. So sticking to the schedule as rigidly as possible for the first 48 hours after deciding to go for it actually got Baby K to snap into it really quickly. We used the standard sample schedule found in the book for his age range.

CLICK HERE to subscribe to our email list AND get a free printable Babywise schedule for newborns through their first year!

WARNING: This step is all about commitment. Once the schedule is ingrained in baby’s routine, body, etc. you’re more able to “adjust” based on daily schedule changes. But until then, you want to stick to the schedule as rigidly as possible. This means scheduling everything from doctors appointments to family visits during wake time, and your personal hygiene needs, cooking, cleaning, etc. during sleep time. It’s not going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it.

2. Put baby to sleep/nap in crib as often as possible, as early on as possible.

One of the harder things to do (even before we went the Babywise schedule route) was to get Kaiden to sleep in his crib after taking a few naps in his rocker or swing. I know this is tempting when you’re on your last leg in those first couple months, but do your best to put baby to sleep in a crib as often as possible – especially for night-time sleeps. Of course there’s always grace to do what mamas need to do, so don’t feel bad doing a co-sleep when the deprivation is at its height or a nap in the rocker when you feel you’re about to break. An odd nap here or there is not going to make it or break it. Just do your best to get your baby to sleep in the crib as much as possible.

3. Do whatever you can to ensure baby has a full feed.

This was probably the toughest step for me. As a breastfeeding mama, committing to full feeds in the midst of all the other breastfeeding challenges can seem like craziness. But it can make the difference between a full nap and a doze,  or between 3 and 7 hours through the night. A full feed while breastfeeding is generally agreed-upon to be 10-15 minutes of a full latch on each breast. This can vary based on the type of feeder your baby is but 10-15 minutes, at least in the very early stages, is an admirable target.

The main issues & solutions I encountered with this were:

A. Keeping baby fully latched for the “minimum” time frame.

Once your baby learns to fully latch and becomes a seasoned pro, this won’t be a problem. However, I realized early on that Baby K’s issue was my letdown reflex. I had a very strong letdown reflex and it was too much for Baby K. So in his first couple months he’d get tired after about 7 minutes of feeding and stop. If you’re having a similar problem, I encourage you to try my solution. I talk about it in this post: My Baby Wouldn’t Stay Latched For A Full Feed Until I Tried This.

B. Keeping baby awake for a full feed during the night.

This is a very common challenge with ensuring a full feed during the night whether you’re breast or formula feeding. And Baby K was a sleeper so the standard solution of a cold washcloth didn’t work for us. But what did work was a bag of ice cubes. The second he started to doze off, ice cube on the toes or upper arm. If I was truly desperate, maybe on the neck – just for a few seconds to jolt him back awake and focusing on the task at hand…feeding.

With these 3 things, Baby K was on a daily sleep schedule within 48 hours of my reading the book and sleeping through the night a full 7 hours only 2 weeks later.

Again, we’ll never stop preaching – READ ON BECOMING BABYWISE. And be sure to subscribe to The Newlymoms and get your free printable Babywise schedules HERE.

Also be sure to check out our other posts on breastfeeding tips and tricks below:

• My Baby Wouldn’t Stay Latched For A Full Feed Until I Tried This.
• 10 Things You Need to Thrive in Your First Year of Breastfeeding
• 3-Step Routine That Tripled My Milk Supply
• 5 Ways to Increase Your Milk Supply (Without Going Crazy)
• 10 Breastfeeding Tips for New Moms (So It Doesn’t Suck)
• The Best Lactation Cookies Ever

What questions do you have about getting your baby on a schedule? Do you have other methods besides Babywise that have worked for you? Let us know!