Sleep Schedules for Babies 0-3 Months

Sleep schedules for newborns is sort of an oxymoron. While baby is sleeping more hours a day than they probably will for the rest of infancy, it is chunked into 1-4 hour blocks, with the occasional longer block at night if you are lucky. 16 hours is the average amount of sleep, but baby could fall anywhere between 14-18 hours per 24 hours period. Babies this young tend to drop off to sleep frequently and suddenly, in locations ranging from your arms to the car seat to their swing. Baby’s day tends to start between 6 and 7 AM and bedtime tends to be on the later side, usually between 9-11 PM.

Babies this young can’t officially be sleep trained in the sense that you can’t force them to drop night feeds. If you are fortunate enough to get a baby who can do a longer stretch of sleep at night, count your lucky stars (or don’t, cause hopefully you will be passed out as well). While this isn’t the time to technically sleep train your little one, you can definitely set your baby up with healthy sleep habits by doing the following:

• Establishing a bedtime routine and sticking to it EVERY NIGHT within the first few weeks

• Allowing baby 2-5 minutes to fuss before responding to cries to allow baby to practicing bridging sleep cycles and developing self-soothing skills

• Trying to put baby to bed awake as much as possible and avoiding sleep props that you will have to wean them off of later like musical mobiles and nighttime pacifiers

By Hannah Mira, Founder of Bonsoir Bebe Sleep Consulting