There is no schedule yet
Throw out the timetable for a while. A newborn is not late for anything.
Raising Children says the early months are for flexibility. You answer sleep and feeds as they come. The baby's cues and body are the information.
Sleep, feed, or interact. It is fine to go with what fits that moment rather than what a chart said should happen at 7pm.
If you want a shape, there is a gentle one. Feed when they wake. Change the nappy.
Talk, play, cuddle. Put them down again. Even inside that shape you watch the cues.
Tired before the play slot means sleep now. Hungry after the play means another feed, then settle. They sleep better with a full belly.
At night, skip the chat. Feed, and back down. Daytime can hold the faces and the talk.
Night is not a social event you are failing.
Crying gets a medical glance before a technique. Sick, hurt, uncomfortable. If those are out, and they fed in the last two hours, comfort is the move.
Holding them with their head near your chest is the example. You can do that hold. You do not have to hand every cry back to her because she is the mother.
Sometimes you are the one whose shirt does not smell of milk, and that is an advantage.
Newborns often need help to fall asleep. The name for responding while you help is responsive settling. It is not the same as leaving them to prove a point, and it is not the same as rocking until your back goes and calling that a philosophy. Help, watch, put down when you can.
The part for you, specifically, is the break. If the crying is heavy and you feel stressed, anxious or angry, even five minutes matters. A book.
A walk around the block. A bit of quiet. Or another person takes the baby.
Ask. The page treats that handoff as care for the baby, because a furious adult is a risk, not a hero. Agree it before you are both gone.
One of you taps out. The other is actually off, not hovering.
You become the trusted person by answering needs with warmth. A smile, a touch, a feed, a sleep. That is how the baby learns the room is safe.
A rigid clock taught in week two does not do that job. The clock can come later, when this baby shows you a pattern. Until then, your night shift is cues, not an opinion.
Source: Raising Children Network