For Parents
Sample Schedules By Age
Here are some proposed schedules for your baby. Even if you aren’t sleep training, these schedules are a good guide to help you optimize your baby’s naps and nighttime sleep.
2-4 Month Schedule (download pdf)
4-6 Month Schedule (no solids) (download pdf)
4-6 Month Schedule (solids) (download pdf)
6-15 Month Schedule (download pdf)
15 months-3 years schedule (download pdf)
Customizable Sleep Log
Logging your child’s current eating, sleeping, and fussy habbits will help give you clues to things that you can change before working on sleep so your baby doesn’t have to fix more than one thing at a time. That means your baby will learn so much more efficiently when you are ready to start working on sleep.
Sleep Log Template (download pdf)
Parent Contract
Parenting is complicated. Not only is there a ton of conflicting information out there, but you also need to make sure you and your spouse are on the same page. This creates a lot of extra conflict for new parents because neither parent is the expert. So you divide and concquer on issues. While this tactic is helpful in multitasking, sleep is one of those things that should not be left up to one parent.
Parent Contract (download pdf)
SPRING DAYLIGHT SAVINGS
Daylight Savings Time springs the clocks forward at 2 a.m. on Sunday. Although most of us plan to be catching some serious zzzs through the undramatic time shift, the event can cause some discomfort the next morning (i.e., it arrives far too early for most). Making a few small tweaks the day before the shift can help keep your little ones – and your – sleep on track.
We recommend you start the Daylight Savings time transition on Saturday. Getting a head start will give you the benefit of an extra day of adjustments before Monday’s work and school schedules pick up again.
- Situation 1: If your child takes no naps, try to encourage him to get to bed a full hour earlier Saturday. For example, a 7:00 p.m. bedtime would be 6:00 p.m. on only the Saturday right before the time change.
- Situation 2: If your child still takes one nap during the day, move it up by 30 minutes. Then, move bedtime up by a full hour. For example, a 1:00 p.m. nap would take place at 12:30 p.m. And a 7:00 p.m. bedtime would be pushed up to 6:00 p.m.
- Situation 3: If your child takes two or three naps during the day, move things up gradually throughout the day on Saturday so your child is tired for an earlier bedtime. For example, a 9:00 a.m. naptime would take place at 8:45 a.m.; a 1:00 p.m. nap would take place at 12:30 p.m.; and a 7:00 p.m. bedtime would be 6:00 p.m.
On Sunday morning the clocks will have sprung forward and your child may wake up earlier. However, he or she should be rested thanks to the earlier bedtime.
Pushing these nap and bed times early on Saturday may be challenging. Your child may not be as tired as usual so try to plan in plenty of activity, fresh air and sunshine. If you have a usual pre-sleep routine stick to it as if nothing has changed. It may take your child a few days to adjust fully but eventually things will “spring” into place.
HINT: If you don’t have blackout shades on your windows, now is the time to act. It will likely still be light at bedtime after the time shift. Adding blackout shades will help both big and little kids settle into sleep faster. Black garbage bags taped to your child’s bedroom windows make good makeshift shades in a pinch.