Moms On Call Schedule: How to Make It Work For You
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What is it about the Moms On Call schedule that helps babies to sleep so well?
The truth is, the concepts found in the Moms on Call book aren’t new or entirely unique. However, the plan that they provide you with makes all the difference. Written by two pediatric nurses with years of experience, this method is proven to be a fantastic base for establishing healthy sleep habits.
Let’s be honest, as sleep-deprived moms we need simple and that is exactly what you’ll get in the Moms on Call book.
For the sake of this post, I thought it would be helpful to discuss the Moms on Call schedules and how you can make them work for your baby and family in general.
We know that one size doesn’t fit all so it is important to be flexible when necessary.
Your baby isn’t a robot and the authors of Moms On Call 100% understand that which is something that I personally really appreciate about the book.
This post will share some insight on how we used Moms on Call successfully with 2/3 of our children and what tweaks we made along the way.
Ultimately, the key to making the MOC schedule work for you is to take what is life-giving to your home and not worry about the rest.
I understand that you might want some practical ways on how to implement that though, so let’s chat a bit more about that.
How to Make the Moms On Call Schedule Fit Your Family
While the Moms on Call schedules are incredibly helpful and take a lot of the hard work out of the equation, the reality is that you will need to make it fit for your baby.
Here are my three top tips for providing flexibility while maintaining consistency.
#1 Pick Your DWT (Desired Wake Time) Even If It Doesn’t Match the Moms On Call Schedule
This is something that you’ll see in both the Moms On Call Book and the Babywise sleep training method.
Having a consistent start to the day will help to establish a consistent routine. It will also help greatly towards stabilizing your baby’s metabolism.
Many moms get stuck here because they see the times listed in the schedule and feel as though they have to live by it.
I’ll let you in on some important information…the schedule is there to serve you.
You could have your baby start the day at 8 AM and just adjust all the other scheduled times accordingly. You could also start at 6 AM.
I’ve even seen moms with DWT’s of 9 AM so that their babies can have time with dad when he gets home late from work.
Whatever you do, pick a consistent start to your day and just adjust the schedule accordingly.
7 AM works for many families, but we all have different commitments and schedules so you need to make it work for you.
Many don’t choose to establish this part of the MOC book until more like two months of age. That’s totally fine. Do what works.
#2 Try For Most Naps At Home
This is more for moms who have multiple children. While it would be ideal to have your baby nap in their crib for all of their naps, you often have other commitments.
Older children might have school pick up and drop off as well as other activities. This is real life we’re talking about!
Plus, you could be an extrovert and just NEED to get out of the house on a regular basis. This was never a struggle for me as I’m quite the homebody, but we’re all programmed differently.
The best advice is to try for most naps at home but also give the schedule some grace. Wear your baby in a carrier or go for a walk with the stroller.
It really won’t hurt.
As your baby gets older they will drop naps and getting out and about will become a whole lot easier.
Having them in their cribs for naps will give them a better chance of getting the hours of sleep they need and connecting their sleep cycles. However, babies are pretty adaptable too, so don’t stress about this!
#3 Focus On Key Feedings
This is something I love about the Moms on Call schedules. While they are clear cut they also acknowledge how crazy life can get, especially when you have multiple children.
Their schedules all have a couple of times a day that are considered key feedings. If you can stick to those it will go a long way towards keeping your days consistent. Moms On Call’s typical day schedules are realistic about what life truly looks like. Feeding times need to be flexible and the good news is that they understand that.
How to Tweak Your Baby’s Sleep Schedule For Their Sleep Needs
Another thing to take into consideration when using any kind of baby sleep schedule is the sleep needs of your child.
This is something you may not have even heard of if this is your first baby but knowing about it will really help avoid issues.
Here are some tips to help.
Know What’s Average & “Normal”
The first thing to do is to learn what average sleep amounts are considered average or normal.
However, it is also important to understand that babies will fall on either side of these amounts.
My favourite resource for this has always been a chart that you can find right here at My Baby Sleep Guide.
Out of all the sleep charts out there, I’ve found hers to be the most rounded out.
This post of hers is also super helpful and in-depth.
Figure Out Where Your Baby Sits
The next step is to understand where your baby fits in the scheme of things. My first was (and continues to be at almost age 5) low sleep needs.
My other two children both had higher sleep needs.
A helpful thing to do is to record how your baby does with different amounts of sleep. Honestly, you’ll likely already know if they’re more than a couple months old.
Adjust Wake Times To Suit
Once you know where your baby sits on the scale of sleep needs you can customize their wake times.
Moms On Call wake times would have been perfect with my firstborn, but I definitely didn’t follow them with my second two as they would have become overtired.
Don’t be afraid to follow your baby’s sleep cues and put them down when you deem necessary.
One more thing that we did which you’ll notice in the schedules I provided above was to add a dream feed. This just worked better for my babies and gave me peace of mind that they were getting enough calories.
Moms on Call does not advocate a dream feed, but it worked well for my babies.
The entire point of this post is to help you to see how to make Moms on Call schedules work well for you. Things don’t have to be black and white.
Every baby and every family is different.
For us, Moms on Call was the spine upon which we built our babies’ sleep routines and schedules, but there were other resources we used to make it work the best we could.
Where to Find the Moms on Call Schedules:
The best place to find the Moms on Call Schedules is in their book. It is well worth buying yourself a copy because you’ll refer to it over and over again.
I bought the Kindle version so I could easily access it on my phone.
The other option is to purchase the mobile app and use that. However, you won’t get all the other valuable information that the book provides if you choose to go that route.
Moms On Call Method Schedules:
Here you’ll see the ages that have different schedules. I have not listed the Moms on Call schedules from the book as that wouldn’t be right. However, I have listed the schedules that we used at that age.
They are not exactly the same as the Moms on Call schedules but are based on the framework.
Ages:
- 2-4 Weeks
- 4-8 Weeks
- 8-16 Weeks (transitional schedule)
- 4-6 Months
I’m only including the schedules from the first Moms on Call book, but they do have at least a couple more books that follow on after 6 months.
What We Did:
These are the schedules we used for my youngest daughter. I’ve picked the schedules from the latter end of the timeframe, but if you’d like to see even more you can find them all here.
2-4 Weeks
- 6:30 Desired wake time (I tried my best to feed as close to this time as possible)
- 7:10-15 Nap
- 9:30 Feed
- 10:10-15 Nap
- 12:30– Feed
- 1:10-15 Nap
- 3:30 Feed
- 4:10-15 Nap
- 5:45 Bath
- 6:00 Feed
- 6:30 Nap
- 9:00 Bedtime Feed
4-8 Week Schedule
- 6:30 Desired wake time (I tried my best to feed as close to this time as possible)
- 7:20-30 Nap
- 9:30 Feed
- 10:20-30 Nap
- 12:30– Feed
- 1:20-30 Nap
- 3:30 Feed
- 4:20-30 Nap
- 6:00 Bath
- 6:30 Feed
- 7:00 Bedtime
- 10:00 Dreamfeed
8-16 Week Schedule
- 7:00 Desired wake time
- 8:30 Nap
- 11 Feed
- 12:30 Nap
- 3:00 Feed
- 4:30 Nap
- 5:30 Cuddle Time
- 6:30 Bath
- 6:45 Bottle
- 7:00 Bedtime
4-6 Months
- 7:00 AM Desired wake time
- 8:00 AM Breakfast
- 9:00 AM Nap
- 11:00 AM Feed
- 12:00 PM Lunch
- 1:00 PM Nap
- 3:00 PM Feed
- 5:00 PM Nap
- 5:30 PM Family time
- 6:45 PM Bath
- 7:00 PM Feed
- 7:30 PM Bed
FAQs
Over time I’ve found that there are some fairly common questions that come up regarding the Moms On Call schedules.
I can only share what I’ve personally found to work and what I’ve personally experienced, but I’ll try my best to help!
How to Establish a Bedtime Routine When You Have Older Kids?
This can definitely be tricky and take some time to work through, but it’s possible!
My tips would be to keep things simple. Don’t draw things out.
Also, bedtime in our home has always been a joint effort. By that, I mean that my husband helped.
Not everyone has that luxury, but if you do – divide and conquer!
If not, I would keep things as simple as possible with all of your kids. If you have a toddler to put to bed first, wear the baby in a baby wrap so they’re safe and happy while you get your little one to bed.
If the toddler can go to bed later than the baby then see if you can find some activities that are reserved just for that time of day. Toddlers are much better occupied when it’s a novelty for them.
Is a Sound Machine Essential?
Technically speaking…no. A sound machine is not essential for a baby’s sleep. However, I have found it to be an immensely helpful tool in our home.
I also never had issues with kids not being able to sleep without one as they got older. We simply stopped using it one day and it was fine.
Using a sound machine can be a good sleepy indicator and help to set up a healthy sleep environment. However, it’s not the only thing you can do to try and help your baby sleep well.
Aren’t Baby Sleep Schedules a Bad Thing and Overly Rigid?
They can be if you follow the schedule without listening to the needs of your baby. A healthy baby sleep schedule is one that takes into consideration what your baby needs as well as creates a feeding and sleeping rhythm throughout the day.
A strict schedule that is not age-appropriate is definitely detrimental. However, when used correctly baby schedules can be an absolute lifesaver for a new mom.
Make room for when your baby is having a growth spurt or isn’t feeling well. It will never hurt in the long run to ignore the schedule for a day or two.
For new parents, having a schedule to follow helps to take away a lot of the guess work.
What About Sleep Regressions?
You know, it’s funny because I feel as though sleep regressions were less of a thing with each baby that I had.
I’m not sure if they were better sleepers overall or if I just wasn’t as concerned and fussed about it.
With my first child, I could tell you exactly when sleep regressions took place, but I can’t do that with my other kids.
In my experience, if my kids were having sleep regressions, sticking to the schedule was actually helpful. It still gave them the rest time that they needed even if they didn’t actually sleep.
What About Short Naps?
My first kid was the king of taking catnaps all through the day. As a first time mom It was not fun and totally stressed me out a whole lot.
You can check out this post about how to troubleshoot short naps. However, if none of that works then you need to adjust the schedule until your baby starts sleeping for longer stretches.
It feels like it’ll take forever, but it really doesn’t.
Is the 0-6 Month Book the Only One Worth Purchasing?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I’ve not bought any of the other books. The first book is really excellent. Once my babies got past that 6-month mark I kinda had a more flexible baby schedule for them and was more confident about going with the flow.
I have heard excellent things about the other books from Moms On Call though.
How to Know When to Move to the Next Schedule?
You can either follow the schedules based on weeks of age and switch as your baby grows or change when the current schedule just isn’t working.
I know a few moms had good success moving to the 8-14 week schedule a little earlier than the book states.
Use your discretion.
Final Thoughts
Moms On Call was a saving grace for me. It gave me a flexible guide that truly helped my babies to achieve longer stretches at night. Nap time became established, but as the naps evolved and changed over the months, the Moms On Call schedules helped give me the guidance to adjust to all that.
Their book is well worth the time to read!
