The "E.A.S.Y" schedule... Did it work for you?

[Aw12345]

First time mum, 30 weeks pregnant, have been told by a couple of friends to do the "Secrets of a baby whisperer" EASY schedule (eat, activity, sleep, you time).

Has anyone tried it? Does it work? I though sleep schedules didn't work for young babies?

Any wisdom/advice welcome!

Worked a dream for my DS, I loved the Baby Whisperer.
Id recommend her book to anyone.

Yes, I was all over the place until I read The Baby Whisperer. Really helped us!

I was a pick fan of her book. Pick up/put down worked very well for us as well, once I wanted them to sleep in the big cot.

It’s not so much a schedule, more a rhythm and very baby-led. It encourages you to watch your child, not the clock (disclaimer, my youngest is 8.5, so it’s been a while!)

Good luck!

Yes I did that as it seemed to make sence. It gave us a good structure though I remember the ‘ activity ‘ was about a second long for the first few weeks.

I should add too it's been a while, DS is 14, but I still recommend her book. When I was on maternity leave she had a programme that I used to watch. Was really sad when she died

Found it very helpful. The right balance for us between ‘you’ll find your own way’ and ‘7am = eat cornflakes (you)”

Since she sadly died her books don’t seem to be marketed but I think the advice is sound

Yeah it was a great structure for my two... didn't stick to the timings but kept the order

I never read the books but our pattern always seemed to be similar to that, with an extra eat before the sleep!!

More like eat, sleep, activity for us. But it helped to have that structure.

Yes, it's easy to forget that there can be anything other than eat/sleep in the early days so it's good to factor in the activity part and rewarding when you discover for example that she really enjoys her play mat.

Mind you I've never read the book, just try and broadly follow the EASY pattern.

I found it helpful as a rough guideline. Especially for DC1.

With DC2 I had to be a bit more free and easy what with all the other shit going on, but the basic principle is fairly sound.

I will say though, that if you find that it doesnt work, then chuck it and forget it...there’s a million ways to get through the day with a baby and no book will ever describe your exact experience

Worked very well for my second son. Although I would limit activity/awake time to no more than 1hr if that for a newborn. They get overstimulated very easily in my limited experience.
Ds1 was a high needs baby who turned out to have some sort of digestive issues or reflux. So a routine never worked due to his discomfort. We knew what we were dealing with for Ds2.
Good luck.

Yes really useful for me a clueless first time mum and it worked for us. It wasn't a rigid schedule more like a very useful guideline.

Like PPs have said I've been using the structure but not always the timing, jabs/teething seem to always throw things out, but the basic routine was great.

Used it to get out of the habit of falling asleep while feeding once DD was 2 months old, before then I did just follow her lead though

Yes, and I think it saved my sanity! I realised through doing it that I'd been keeping my baby daughter awake too long, and missing cues that she was ready for a nap.

I remembered it as Eat / Awake / Sleep / You-time.

It's not a sleep schedule, it's just an order of doing things. You will cycle through it at different speeds - there's no set timings iirc. Just this: baby wakes up, gets fed. Baby is awake for a bit and perhaps time for some 'Activities'. Spot when baby is getting tired, and give them a place to Sleep. Grab a cuppa if you can. And repeat. For months :)

Not for us! I spent a few weeks trying to put the routine in place but my baby was never up for it!

Mine always fell asleep during feeding.

Sorry, disaster for me. I read it avidly while pregnant but dd1 just didn't seem to agree. I muddled through with no guide until I discovered Dr Sears who seemed to have written all my instinctive parenting concepts into a detailed book

Yes, we followed it and loved it. For both my DC, although they are older now (both over 10).

I found the key to success was ...

• observe your baby for the first few days, find their natural rhythm and build the routine around that. The routine fits the baby, not the other way round. Most people I know who found it didn't work, didn't do the observation first and tried to make the baby fit the routine.

I also did the dream feeds and fed hourly in the evenings, so despite having small ebf babies, both babies were sleeping 5 hours by 5 weeks, 6 hours by 6 etc... so by 9 weeks they were doing 11-8, and I was getting a full nights sleep.

Was fab for us. I'd recommend to anybody.

Yea, once i recognised my babies cues for sleep, it worked very well for us. Actually i think my baby put herself into that 'routine'! (More of a guide really than routine.)

Was great, except DS1 did a variation Eat, Activity, Eat, Sleep.
It's a rhythm rather than a schedule. So its not 'feed for 5mins at 7.37, then play for the next fifteen and a half minuites', its a feed them when they wake, let them wriggle about for s bit, and pop into bed (or sling, or cradle in your arms) at the first sign of tiredness.

Ok great! Looks like it's generally a thumbs up :-) thanks is everyone :-)

*thanks everyone... Typo!!