With our second noob on the way this May, I’ve been rereading many of my parenting books with more intensity, attention and renewed trepidation. I feel like I’ve been living in the lap of luxury for the past two years with Noob Baby sleeping an average of 11 hrs at night! Did I just voluntarily sign up to sacrifice all that beauty sleep again?! And by “beauty sleep”… I mean SANITY sleep.
I thought this would be the perfect time to create a cheat sheet with all of the Baby Whisperer’s E.A.S.Y Schedules on one easy-to-reference page! Download and print the E.A.S.Y Cheat Sheet here. Be sure to Share, Like, Tweet, Pin, Email it to your heart’s content! I love having useful content shared!
The E.A.S.Y Cheat Sheet includes 4 schedules which span the ages of 4 weeks to about 1 year. Here are some tips to remember:
1. If you aren’t already familiar with the Baby Whisperer’s E.A.S.Y method, please visit my Parenting Tips section to read a detailed explanation:
2. These schedules are adapted from the The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems (Hogg and Blau). I’ve made a few minor adjustments based on my experience. So, you’ll see that bedtime might be between 7:30-8:00 (slightly different than what’s written in the book). I just figured that for most people, the bath and bedtime ritual is longer than the 30 minutes Hogg indicates.
3. These samples are simply guidelines of how you can structure your day. By no means are you supposed to be following these suggestions minute-to-minute. Do not feel like a failure if your day doesn’t go as planned! Flexibility is something that all parents learn sooner or later. Read more on what do When E.A.S.Y is Not So Easy.
4. Don’t stress about a schedule for babies under 2-3 months. Hogg clearly states that the first six weeks is a time of huge adjustment. In fact, Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block, hypothesizes that babies ages 0-3 month are making up for their “Missing Fourth Trimester.” My advice is to go with the flow and just try to make baby as comfy as possible while he’s adjusting to life on Earth!
5. Follow your child’s cues, but use parental judgement. All the parenting experts I’ve read (Hogg, Karp, Ferber, Ezzo, Sears, Weissbluth, to name a few) agree that you should always be in tune with your child’s needs. So even though you may desperately want to have an organized schedule, babies certainly don’t understand that (and they just don’t give a crap). Again, be flexible but remember that you are the adult and parent. An infant doesn’t understand what’s best for him/her. If you aren’t establishing some predictability and structure by 3-4 months, you are setting yourself up for a lot of habit-breaking, fussiness and even poor eating and sleeping later on.
6. The last sample schedule goes up to about 1 year. After this age, the day doesn’t really lend itself to the E-A-S-Y pattern anymore. Generally, toddlers (1 yr+) take 1-2 naps and have 3 meals w/2 snacks a day. Preschoolers will usually take 1 nap a day (or drop naps completely by ages 3-4) and have 3 meals w/2 snacks a day.
Just in case you missed the link for the FREE PRINTABLE EASY CHEAT SHEET.
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This is awesome!!!! I first found your blog when I was using EASY with #1. I’m expecting #2 in the summer and am definitely going to be using this handy dandy cheat sheet. Thanks so much!
Danusha – So glad you are going to find this helpful! I know I’ll be referencing this when #2 comes this Spring
Thanks for posting this, but I have a quick question. My baby (5 months and 1 wk old) will only sleep for 45 minutes during nap times. We used the Ferber method and now we are down to 1 (sometimes 2) nighttime feedings and we are pretty happy with that, but we can’t get him to sleep more that 45 minutes, so he takes 5 naps a day! He will only be happy being awake for about 60-90 minutes before he looses his cool and just becomes a major grump, whining, fussing, rubbing his eyes… how do you suggest following a “EASY” schedule when he won’t take a good nap? We still try to do the Eat/Play/Sleep pattern, but it’s hard because he eats every 3 hours, but oftentimes that runs into the middle of a nap! I will give you an example of how our mornings usually go:
7:00am- Wake and feed
7:30-8:30- Play (activity)
8:30-9:15- Nap
9:15-10:00 – Play
10:00-10:15- Feed
10:15-10:45- Play
10:45-11:30- Nap
We have tried letting him CIO when he wakes up, but he never falls back asleep… I am just not sure what to do! Help, please!
Thanks for the post! My daughter is 5 and 1/2 months. We have been following this routine for about a week now ( I was nursing on demand but once I read The Baby Whisperer and realized she should be able to go w/o a feeding for 4 hours after 4 months it has gotten so much easier). As far as the cluster feedings go, it says to only do if they are goign through a growth spurts. How do you know if they are going through one?
I’m looking at the 3 hour EASY and notice you have nothing on the schedule between 11pm and 7am. What happens during those hours? Our 7 week old baby is not sleeping for 8 hours thru the night.
Thanks!
I have started the EASY method and think its rather simple, but there are no options for babies with reflux! I have had a hard time trying to get the required amount of A-ctivity in because after I feed baby, I have to spend a good amount of time burping her which requires me to hold her on my chest for a good 20-30 minutes. End result is a sound sleeping baby. With the EASY method in mind, I get no Activity/play time in really. Has anyone had any luck with getting a reflux baby on a sleep schedule?
Dear Noob Mommy:
Thank you heaps for creating this site. As a fellow teacher, I was losing my mind as my tightly wound life spun out of control with my Noobie. I love and have been using the BW schedule for the past 6 weeks, and it has saved our lives and sanity. My one quick question, as we transition into the 4 months and up schedule—If we do not do the dream feed, how many ounces does baby get at each feeding to ensure that he is eating enough (getting enough calories, etc.)? He currently eats 5 oz. five times a day per the BW Newborn – 4 months schedule. If we cut his feedings down to four feedings, does that mean that we gradually work toward feeding him 8 oz. per feeding — which would be 32 oz. per day? I guess the anal, controlling teacher in me needs to know. I would love your insight and experience with this upcoming schedule. Thank you again; I am so grateful for your perspective, wisdom, and humor!
Hi…love your website. Inam reading the Baby Wisperer but like having your site as a quick refence to the main points. I have been dying to ask a few questions to someone who uses the EASY method. First off, above you have a schedule for a baby starting at four weeks but then you say to not even worry about a schedule for babies under two to three months. Can you please clarify when you can start using a schedule. My baby is only 2 1/2 weeks old but i am anxious to get her started on a routinen as soon as i can so i can know when it is best to take her on outings. I know right niw is too early, i’m just thinking ahead.
My next question is how do you keep your baby on the schedule? For instance, if she sleeps past the three hour feeding time should i wake her?
Hi…love your website. Inam reading the Baby Wisperer but like having your site as a quick refence to the main points. I have been dying to ask a few questions to someone who uses the EASY method. First off, above you have a schedule for a baby starting at four weeks but then you say to not even worry about a schedule for babies under two to three months. Can you please clarify when you can start using a schedule. My baby is only 2 1/2 weeks old but i am anxious to get her started on a routinen as soon as i can so i can know when it is best to take her on outings. I know right niw is too early, i’m just thinking ahead.My next question is how do you keep your baby on the schedule? For instance, if she sleeps past the three hour feeding time should i wake her? How do i convince her its nap time? By putting her in her crib? I still have a lot to learn but just wondering about these questions. Thanks for all the great info.