Why We Live and Die by the Three Hour Schedule
Every baby is unique and different. This is true! But they aren’t so different in their core needs as a living breathing human. The grass is green, the sky is blue and babies needs are too!
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We swear by a 3-hour schedule from 0-16 weeks, it’s most effective for meeting baby’s needs, aligns with their wake windows and needs for sleep and simply MAKES SENSE. Once in a blue moon, we’ll have a family find a peculiar schedule or advice that recommends they have their teeny tiny baby on a 4-hour schedule around the clock. We would NEVER recommend this. Will your baby be okay? Sure… most likely… yes. But, it’s not ideal for a number of reasons.
Balance through the Day / Wake Windows - your schedule needs to flow well. Generally speaking, you do not want baby to sleep more than about 2 hours during the day at once. MAYBE 2 hours and 15 minutes when you first bring them home and they are suuuuper drowsy during the first 2-3 weeks. After that 2 hours MAXIMUM, hard stop. For the first months newborns have 45-60 minute wake windows and you ideally want to follow an E.A.S.Y routine… EAT, PLAY, SLEEP, REPEAT. You cannot do this with a newborn on a four hour schedule unless you are either letting them nap for 3 + hours OR feeding them to sleep after the second wake window in that four hour block. Regardless at some point the four hour schedule gets messy with a newborn.
What is the Ideal Schedule? A 3-hour block will align with their wake and sleep needs for the first 4 months. You’ll feed every 3 hours and then have awake time, the remaining block will be a nap time. Ex: at 4 weeks baby will Wake, Feed and be up for 60 total minutes, they’ll then take a 120 minute nap = 3 HOURS. At 8-16 weeks baby will Wake, Feed and then be up for 90 minutes. They’ll then take a 90 minute nap = 3 HOURS. It flows!
Daytime Calories- Eating every three hours allows a whole extra feed during the daytime feeding block between 7-7 or 8-8, whatever you are doing. Any longer stretches during the day will likely impact calories and impact how long baby can stretch overnight. You’re losing an entire feed. I always say that a stretch during the day takes away a stretch overnight. Example: If baby is eating 4 oz per feed and eating every 3 hours during the day they will get 20 oz during the daytime feeds. On a 4 hour schedule, they are only getting 16 oz, so they will need to get those overnight and make them up. Early on it’s not as much of an issue, but we are actively creating an environment where it’s more likely baby NEEDS to eat overnight to reach their ideal calories, versus having access to those during the day and organically stretching their sleep overnight.
Ultimately it’s your choice! But the 3-hour schedule is the GOLD STANDARD.
Harmony Baby Concierge is a full service Newborn Care + Postpartum Support Agency based in Dallas, Austin and Houston, Texas.. We have a well-rounded team of Newborn Care Specialists, Night Nurses, Postpartum Doulas, Newborn Night Nannies and Baby Nurses. We provide lactation support, newborn care, night nursing, gentle sleep training and parent education to families of newborns. We serve all families with love, warmth and care. Serving: Dallas, Austin, Houston, Highland Park, University Park, Kessler Park, Lake Highlands, Lakewood, Plano, Frisco, Celina, Prosper, Fort Worth, Southlake, Westlake, Irving, Preston Hollow, Park Cities, Grand Prairie, Carrollton, Houston, Manvel, Galveston, West University, Austin, Barton Creek, Round Rock, Houston, Denver, New York City, Greenwich CT, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Englewood Colorado, Cherry Hills Village CO, and Surrounding Areas.