I don’t get it

[15gb2]

I see so many social media posts about changing wake windows and oz fed. How?? I feed my LO when she’s hungry, she stops when she’s satisfied. I put her to sleep when she’s tired, she wakes when she’s rested. The most control I have/ impose is waking her up. How do they control so much of their baby’s schedule? It just doesn’t seem possible to me, am I missing something?

 

[sarah6722]

@15gb2 I had to have a strict schedule or else I’d lose my mind. I completely lack the ability to intuitively understand my baby’s cues. Working off wake windows and doing oz feedings (I exclusively pumped) assured me that my child was sleeping enough and eating enough.

 

[15gb2]

@sarah6722 That totally makes sense and hats off to you for exclusively pumping!!! Such a feat in itself.

 

[logmantm]

@15gb2 I never worried about schedules either and just followed baby’s cues. She breast fed so we never measured her intake in ounces either. You don’t have to do what social media is telling you! I just followed my instincts and parented like a cavewoman and it’s been wonderful.

 

[15gb2]

@logmantm I also am on the cavewoman train lol I definitely don’t follow social media rules and just don’t understand how they can get their baby to do what they want. I think I must have a very strong willed LO.

 

[missingrocky]

@logmantm Same. And my five month old, exclusively breastfed daughter sleeps eight hours straight at night. I'm so well rested compared to all the schedule obsessed parents that I know!

 

[hurdygurdyman]

@15gb2 How old is your baby? I couldn’t do wake windows until maybe 12 weeks. Before then, it really is just sleep when they’re tired and wake up when they want to. After 12 weeks, you put them to sleep x amount of minutes/hours after they wake up in the morning, then again x amount of minutes/hours after they wake up from that nap, and then so on until 7-8pm, which is bedtime. I never imposed an eating schedule though. That was always just on demand or at least offered every ~3 hours if they weren’t demanding it, which was rare lol.

 

[righttruth]

@hurdygurdyman Same, although we did wake the kid up if the timing would honk bedtime, especially as she got older

 

[15gb2]

@hurdygurdyman She’s just about to turn 5 months and she naturally falls on the schedule you described. She’s always been pretty on par with “normal” wake windows. I just don’t understand how people are able to shift things around drastically and the baby goes along with it.

 

[linhlinh9988]

@15gb2 Until 6-8 months I did what you are doing- even contact napping on demand until 6 months. Around 8 months she created her own schedule and my husband who is a SAHP when back to work at 6 months just reads her signs which usually fall into a schedule. She’s now 12m and has kept to a schedule that switches but always based on her needs.

 

[troy1]

@hurdygurdyman My 9 month old has never worked like this and it’s driving me bananas . My eldest naturally fell into a schedule and I took it for granted. Some days I can’t get little one to sleep for 6 hours and other days he can barely last 1.5. No patterns.

 

[charismaticlady]

@15gb2 I didn’t do any of that either. She ate enough and grew and slept through the night in her own time (right after her first birthday). I am a very type A person, but it feels icky to force a baby to eat more or sleep at a certain time. Adults don’t operate that way, so why would a baby? Once she got herself into a routine, we did start waking her from the final nap at a certain time so she would go to bed at a decent time, but I didn’t mess with much other than that.

 

[15gb2]

@charismaticlady This is exactly what I do to a T haha but even if I had the desire to strictly schedule her she would laugh in my face those tik tok babies must be laid back

 

[lanzzy]

@15gb2 It definitely depends on age. And the number of kids. With my first I was much more “free-form” with things. When I had my second I had to work him in with my oldest’s schedule for preschool, activities, etc. With both I nursed on demand but I paid attention to wake windows and nap schedules so my youngest got his naps and we could still pick up his sister.

 

[15gb2]

@lanzzy It definitely makes sense to shift things around when you need to but I’m confused by how? My daughter has her own agenda lol

 

[lanzzy]

@15gb2 Ha! Yes, they do have their own plans. Obviously if they naturally wake up at wildly different times every day there’s only so much you can do, but I would wake him up/keep him up/work harder to get him back to sleep, etc so his wake window hopefully lined up with when I needed to put him down again

It’s trial and error for sure. Then when you figure it out they need something different a month later!

 

[ifthepuzzlefits]

@15gb2 At the time I really thought I was following my daughters cues for sleep— turns out I did not know what I was doing and often had an over tired baby. I was never strict with a schedule but I had to start following something around 5 months.

 

[15gb2]

@ifthepuzzlefits Interesting I wonder if I do the same

 

[thimbleberry]

@15gb2 You’re allowed to just do what works for you and your baby. I never did the eat-play-sleep routine, because nursing to sleep felt more natural to me. I was blessed with good sleepers and they gradually transitioned down to fewer night wakings to feed on their own, and by 4 months were sleeping a good 6 hour stretch at night.

I think if you’re having trouble with naps/sleep/feeds/etc then it makes sense to go to looking for potential solutions (and social media may be a possible source of information). But if what you’re doing is working for you, there’s no need to change it just because people are posting about doing things a different way.

 

[oddduck123]

@thimbleberry Totally agree with this! Sometimes, that eat-play-sleep schedule doesn't make sense for other reasons, too. My kid had major eczema and a fairly time-intensive skincare regimen to control it, so by the time we finished that + diaper + feed he would fall right back asleep again. Do what's needed for your baby.