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Scheduling Baby
Building an Adult Life Around Baby's Schedule
By Kelly Burgess
Parents who have at least one child are probably not surprised by how overwhelming it is to have a new baby in the home. After all, they've been there, done that. But the first-time parent may look up after a week or two, or a month or two, and ask themselves, "Where did I go?"
The good news? You're still in there somewhere. The bad? Well, there really isn't any bad news, just a few adjustments to make to fit it all in – the new baby's needs, your needs as a person and your time as a couple to keep your marriage strong and couple-centered.
In the first few months of life there's no question about who's in charge – it's the baby.
Dr. Jenn Berman knows this from experience. She's the mother of twin toddler daughters and the author of The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy, Confident Kids (New World Library, 2007). She says until babies reach the age of about 4 months and 14 pounds they can't really acclimate to a schedule and need to be tended to pretty much on demand. However, even then, she says, you can start nudging them toward the idea of a day/night schedule with a few simple techniques.
"Even though there's not much you can do schedule-wise at first, it is great to start differentiating night and day," Dr. Berman says. "The simplest way to do so is to tend to them away from the family center at night. Be sure the lights are dim, noises are kept to a minimum, no TV or radio, voices hushed and start them realizing that things are different at night."
That's how Jen Meyers of Ithaca, N.Y., helped her three children, now ages 5, 3 and 1, establish good bedtime routines so that she'd have her evenings free for time with her husband. Meyers, who is also the co-author, along with Dr. Jamie Loehr, of The Playskool Guide to Baby's First Yea
