Establish Daytime Patterns
During the day, you want your baby to eat and eat and eat so that at night time, she will sleep and sleep and sleep. This means frequent feeding times, ranging from every 2 – 3 hours.
If breastfeeding: feed every two hours during the day.
If formula feeding: feed every 3 hours during the day.
If your baby isn’t acting hungry after the allotted time, still offer the breast or bottle. They may take just a bit, bit it will help them learn the pattern of eating more during the day and less at night.
Fill That Belly
I do this at 9:30pm – but it’s whenever you want your 4-5 hour block to start.
Filling the belly at 11pm means your baby could sleep until 3 or 4am.
SAMPLE SCHEDULE FOR 12-WEEK OLD FEEDING TIMES
7:00 am
9:00 am
11:30 am
1:30 pm
3:30 pm
5:30 pm
7:30 pm
9:30 pm – FILL THAT BELLY
2:30 am
5:00 am
7:00 am
I have found these two key feeding tips – in conjunction with 5 Tips to Get Your Newborn to Sleep Longer at Night – have created a pattern which allows both my daughter and me to get the best possible sleep at night with a newborn!