The plan with my baby #2 (currently 24 weeks pregnant) is to always feed them at certain times and change them at certain times, wake them up and start their day at a certain time, always put them to bed at a certain time with a certain routine, all starting from the moment we get home from the hospital.

For feeding, I plan to always always try to feed them at certain times. If they won't eat exactly at that time maybe try again in a few minutes. It would always be every 2 hours.

However! I will never starve them in between. If they cry and it's not time to eat yet I will try to calm them down and distract them in other ways, but only to an extent. If they really won't calm down after that I will feed them. The closer to the scheduled time the better. If it's off by 20 minutes either way, it's actually great because it means we're getting close.

I'm assuming after a month of doing this they will have a predictable schedule, maybe not perfectly what I was aiming for, but predictable at least and I can make my life work around that.

To get more into detail, I plan to do diaper changes every 2 hours, and feeding every 2 hours.

Wake them up at 7 AM and feed them, change them and get them ready for the day at 8, feed them again at 9, change them again at 10, etc.

But between these times I'll be encouraging them to sleep and play, and eventually they'll kind of choose which of these times they want to do what.

After every feeding I will always put them in their swing (where they will take naps but they will sleep at night in their bassinet) I figure they'll be tired after eating. If they cry I'll wait 2 minutes on a timer and pick them up, fully calm them down, hang out with them for awhile. Then put them back in the swing. Repeat 3 times and if they still haven't quieted down or gone to sleep they simply don't want to sleep right now and that's fine.

After this if they won't sleep they will go on the floor for tummy time, and the same will happen after every diaper change. I'll do the same thing waiting 2 minutes at a time 3 times and if they don't want that I'll put them in a baby seat or take them with me to hang out.

The thought is some of these times they will actually decide to sleep or play, and eventually they'll do it every time at certain times of day. For tummy time I might get down and play with them if I'm not busy sometimes to encourage them to enjoy it. I plan to have a lot of toys including a mirror and a water play mat to make this time interesting. And of course a prop pillow to keep them comfy.

How to get baby on schedule