1) Remember to keep your baby doing three things in THIS order:

     eat, play, sleep

Tips for keeping baby awake after feeding include changing its diaper, changing its clothes, using a warm washcloth on face and body, etc.  It can be tough in the early weeks, but gets much easier as your baby gets older.

Slowly phase in the schedule.  You cannot assume that your baby will automatically be able to jump right in!  For example, instead of staying awake a full hour and a half, maybe your baby can stay awake for one hour.  Each day, try to keep baby awake for a bit longer until he/she has reached the goal.

2) These are example times and of course can be adjusted to fit into your own personal schedule.  However, you always want to start your day at the same time.  If you want to adjust something, adjust the bedtime.  If you let your baby sleep past your usual wake up time, your baby will not nap well and it will throw off the entire schedule for the day.

3) If your baby is sleeping in your room, make sure he/she naps in her own crib to get familiar with it.

4) If your baby is still sleeping when you are next supposed to feed him/her, wake him/her up!  The idea is to not let him/her sleep too much during the day so that he/she sleeps longer at night.

5) You want to teach your baby to “self sooth.”  Therefore, it is advised not to rock, give pacifier in the crib, etc. before your baby goes to sleep for naps or for the night.  Your baby needs to teach him/herself to put itself to sleep on its own.  This will be helpful when the baby wakes in the middle of the night (you don’t want to be going in on a regular basis to put him/her back to sleep!)  Simply lay your baby down on its back to go to sleep.  If the baby cries, let him/her cry for 2-3 min.  Then go in and rub their back or pick him/her up (if you have to) to calm the baby down.  Once the baby is calm for 1-2 min., then lay the baby down again and repeat process.  Be consistent.  Eventually, your baby won’t cry at all and when that happens, it is a beautiful thing!