What is the Best Schedule for a Newborn?
BY Mckenna linford, senior Sleep Consultant
When you lay foundations for sleep with your newborn, it will make your life so much easier as you go through the years!
I absolutely love working with parents and helping them help their children to sleep better, which in turn helps them to sleep better. I'm really, really passionate about baby sleep, especially newborn sleep. It's one of my favorite topics!
I love my newborn clients because when you lay those great foundations for sleep first with your newborn, it will make your life so much easier as you go through the years. I am passionate about helping moms enjoy the newborn phase.
Today I am going to share what the best schedule for a newborn is. And to answer that question, I'm going to give you three goals for newborn sleep.
Goal #1: Preventing Overtiredness (Following Wake Windows)
The first goal of newborn sleep for establishing that perfect schedule is preventing overtiredness. Overtiredness is what happens when a newborn is awake for too long. If this happens, babies have a harder time falling asleep for their next nap or bedtime. Usually, they're fussy, especially during their feeding.
So, if we can hit the timing spot on, depending on their age, it's going to be much easier to get them down for their next nap or bedtime.
Here’s a quick reference on how long newborns should be awake based on their age:
0-4 weeks: 45-60 minutes
4-8 weeks: 60-75 minutes
8-12 weeks: 60-90 minutes
12-16 weeks: 1 hour, 15 minutes - 1 hour, 45 minutes
This is pretty shocking to most people! They think newborns can handle much more awake time than they can.
If you stick to these wake windows, getting your baby down for sleep will be much easier.
Following wake windows, especially as a newborn parent, is how you will prevent overtiredness. It will help get more sleep out of naps and that first stretch after bedtime.
Goal #2: Follow an Eat, Play, Sleep Routine
The second goal for newborns is to follow an eat, play, and sleep routine. This routine is so amazing and helpful when you have a newborn. Getting on this type of schedule can make life so much easier.
The eat, play, sleep routine means that after your baby wakes up, they will eat and have their awake time (reference the previous goal for age-appropriate wake window), and then they will go to sleep. Once they wake up again from that nap, you will feed them, and the routine continues as such.
This routine encourages full feedings. When our babies are drowsy and going to sleep, they're not going to take in those full feedings, which can lead to snacking throughout the day. But if you're feeding on an eat, play, sleep schedule, then they can get those full feedings in. It's helpful as a parent to be confident that your newborn is taking full feedings. Typically, a full feeding looks like 20 to 30 minutes on the breast or the bottle, but every baby can differ slightly.
When you focus on full feedings, you'll get longer stretches of sleep for naps and nighttime.
Speaking of newborn naps…a common question I get is, “how long is a normal newborn nap?” This can vary a lot - a normal newborn nap can be 2 hours, it can be 20 minutes. It's different for each baby and each day.
This is why following the schedule of an eat, play, and sleep routine will help create consistency in your day and encourage those longer naps.
And if your newborn is only taking 20-minute naps, that's totally fine. It's very, very normal at this stage!
Goal #3: Establishing a Great Bedtime Routine
The final goal for newborn sleep is to establish a great bedtime routine. You can do this from day one! I know it sounds silly to start doing a bed routine with a little newborn but setting up these consistent habits will help you in the future.
It’s going to pay off, I promise!
A newborn bedtime routine may look something like this:
Bath
Pajamas
Infant massage
A song
Swaddle
Once the routine is complete, you will get baby drowsy and ready to be put in their bed. It can be as simple as that.
Doing the same thing every night will start creating these habits of consistency that our babies will pick up on. It will trigger their minds that sleep is coming and will be helpful for the months and years to come.
Bedtime will also vary as far as timing. It can be anywhere from 8-11 pm, typically 12 to 13 hours after their morning wake up. These timings can vary depending on the baby and depending on the day. So don’t worry too about being on a super strict schedule.
Newborns vary with their sleep; some days, they may take a 20-minute nap, and the next day you're seeing an hour-and-a-half nap and that's super, super normal as far as newborns go. So just be flexible with that bedtime, and if you follow those wake windows, you will be set up for success.
Following these three goals will allow you to enjoy that newborn stage and that's what I want for you, to really enjoy that baby because they're only gonna be tiny for a short period of time.
So the best schedule for a newborn comes down to following those wake windows to prevent overtiredness, using an eat, play, sleep cycle to get those full feedings in, and establishing a bedtime routine. Making those habits in your home is going to set you up for success in the future.
If you want to take it a step further after hearing all these things and want to know more about how to help your baby in the newborn phase, we at Kelly Murray Sleep have an awesome newborn program. It's slightly different from other programs because we work with you longer. We work with newborn families from the first few weeks up until five months to really establish those great sleep habits.
It's so helpful to have a consultant you can ask all your questions to because newborns can be complicated. Sometimes there are things that come up and questions that you might have, so it’s great to have a consultant in your corner.
If you are interested in that program, book a free discovery call and we can tell you more about our newborn program.
All team members have completed training with Kelly and have learned the Murray Method. Kelly continues to support, guide and oversee the Sleep Squad as they work with the families who trust in us. This way, all clients are able to experience the same amazing results (and lots and lots of sleep).
Sweet Dreams…
Kelly Murray is a certified sleep coach and an award-winning pediatric sleep consultant based in Chicago offering sleep coaching services nationwide.
