The Best 2 Month Old Baby Sleep Schedule (With Free Downloads)

The fog of those first newborn weeks is starting to lift.

You might be feeling ready to bring a little more structure to your days.

The good news? A sleep schedule with your 2 month old is absolutely achievable!

Your baby is growing fast, staying awake a little longer between naps, and starting to flash those first real smiles.

And with the right schedule in place, you can start building the healthy sleep habits that will carry your baby all the way through to sleeping through the night.

In this post I’ll share everything you need to know about sleep at two months — wake windows, nap times, total sleep needs — plus the best, in my opinion, 2 month baby sleep schedule to download and start using today.

Is This The Right Schedule For Your Baby?

This schedule is designed for babies aged around 6–8 weeks.

If your baby is younger than 6 weeks, the newborn sleep schedule for babies 2 weeks to 3 months is a better starting point — it covers younger babies too.

If your baby is closer to 10–12 weeks and easily manages wake windows of 2 hours, and can happily go 2.5 hours between feeds, this 3 month sleep schedule is likely a better fit.

Not sure? Start here and watch your baby. If they’re taking a long time to settle, waking earlier than expected, or fighting sleep, it’s usually a sign they’re ready to move to the next schedule.

Should I Put My 2 Month Old On A Sleep Schedule?

Yes — and here’s why.

A predictable sleep and feed schedule gives your baby’s body a rhythm to follow. It helps regulate their natural body clock, reduces the chance of overtiredness — one of the biggest enemies of good sleep — and means you know what’s coming next.

That said, at two months old your schedule needs to be flexible. Think of it as a guide, not a rule.

If your baby is hungry before a scheduled feed, feed them. If they’re showing tired cues earlier than expected, follow their lead.

The goal is consistency over perfection.

What Does Baby Sleep Look Like At 2 Months Old?

At 2 months, here’s what to expect when it comes to sleep and naps:

Download Sleep at 12 Weeks PDF here

Daily sleep needs

• Total sleep: 16 to 17 hours in a 24 hour period
• Night sleep (e.g. 7 pm to 7 am): 12 hours
• Day sleep (e.g. 7 am to 7 pm): 4.5 to 5 hours

For a full breakdown by age, this baby sleep chart is really handy.

Nap guidelines

• No. of naps in the day: 3 (2 short naps and one longer lunchtime nap)
• Awake time (including time spent feeding): Around 1 hr 30 minutes ( Watch those sleepy cues!)

Daily feeding guidelines

• Total feeds: 7 to 8
• Night feeds: Dream feed plus 2 to 3
• Day feeds: 5

Frequency of feeds: every 2.5 to 3 hours

The 3-Part Framework That Makes This Baby Schedule Work

These are the principles that underpin all the baby sleeps schedules here on Busy Blooming Joy.

Part 1: Tanked Up

A well-fed baby sleeps. A snacking baby doesn’t.

You’ll notice the schedule has regular but well-spaced feeds through the day. This is intentional — you want to tank your baby up with milk to minimise night wakes up due to hunger.

Miss a feed, and you’ll pay for it at night.

So always wake your baby for the scheduled feeds in the day, even if sleeping soundly.

This can be hard when you’re busy with jobs or just enjoying a little break – I get it! But, here’s the thing:

Any milk missed in the day will be caught up at night.

When you do feed, aim for a full feed. Keep your baby as awake and alert as possible — tickle those feet, blow on her face, take a layer off if you need to. A few sips here and there just won’t cut it.

“Tanked up” is also the reason for “split feeds” and “top-up feeds” – explained in detail later.

Part 2: Tucked In

Your baby won’t stay asleep — however well fed and tired she is — if she’s uncomfortable or easily disturbed. There are a few things to nail here, the most important are:

• your baby’s sleep space
• the wind-down
• burping

The sleep space

The aim is to recreate the conditions your baby experienced in the womb – dark, very noisy, firm pressure from all around.

Similar conditions will calm and comfort your baby, help them settle and fall asleep.

In addition, these conditions will minimise external disturbances and help your baby stay asleep.

(Babies are light sleepers and easily disturbed – this is a protective measure.)

So setting up the sleep space is really important, and crucial to establish the long lunchtime nap.

So the sleep space needs to be:

Pitch black. Not dim — properly dark. Blackout blinds are essential. Even a sliver of light or a sudden noise can pull your baby out of sleep between cycles.

Have white noise running throughout every nap — low, rumbly, and loud enough to drown out background sounds.

in addition:

Baby needs to be swaddled – this calms the Moro reflex — the involuntary startle that jolts sleeping babies awake — and recreates the cocooning feeling of the womb.

The wind-down

You’ll see wind-down built into the schedule before every single nap. This isn’t filler — it’s really important.

The same short, calm routine before every sleep, will help relax your baby. So take baby to her sleep space, dim the lights, check the diaper, swaddle, a gentle rock or cuddle, white noise on.

Do this consistently and over time your baby’s brain starts to recognise these cues as “sleep is coming” — making settling quicker and easier every time.

Burping

Always burp well before putting baby down.

Trapped wind is a surprisingly common cause of early wake-ups and disturbed sleep. If your baby is particularly gassy, this post is worth a read.

Here are some tips and techniques for burping your baby,

Part 3: Timed Right

Naps are spaced so that the time your baby is awake is 1.5 to 2 hours. This is to avoid your baby becoming overtired.

An overtired baby is flooded with cortisol, the stress hormone that keeps us alert.

The more overtired your baby gets, the harder she’ll fight sleep, the shorter naps will be, and the number of night wakings may increase too.

You may only miss the window by 15 to 20 minutes but it could take an hour to resettle your baby.

Use the schedule timings as your guide — but always watch your baby too.

Start the wind-down when you see those early sleepy cues — yawning, glazed eyes, turning the head away — even if it’s a little before the schedule says.

Getting baby down before overtiredness hits is really important.

Bonus: putting baby down awake

Here’s something worth knowing — and something I had my own doubts about at first.

If your baby is well fed, tired but not overtired, and settled in her sleep space, it really is possible to put them down in the cot and for them to fall asleep with no further input from you.

However, you can still follow this baby sleep schedule without putting baby down awake.

Just be aware that if your baby always needs to be rocked or nursed to sleep, those habits can become hard to break as they get older. It’s worth trying to put baby down drowsy but awake when you can, even just occasionally, to avoid having to tackle it later.

The good news is that by following the 2 month sleep schedule outlined below, you should get the first 3 parts of the framework right.

Baby will be Tanked Up, Tucked In and Timed Right — meaning putting her down drowsy but awake should be possible.

The Wake – Feed – Active – Sleep cycle

The schedule is built around one repeating pattern: wake → feed → active time → sleep.

This order matters:

Feeding on waking or shortly after— when your baby is at her most alert — means she’ll take a fuller, more efficient feed.

Here’s what each cycle looks like in practice:

1. Wake up Baby wakes naturally, or you gently rouse her. Turn on the lights or open curtains, unswaddle, let baby stretch and kick.

2. Diaper change Helps baby fully wake up and get ready for an active, efficient feed.

3. Feed Offer the breast or bottle, stopping to burp at least once during and after.

4. Active time A little tummy time, a kick on the play mat, some simple interaction. It doesn’t need to be much.

5. Wind-down Check diaper, swaddle, dim the lights, white noise on.

6. Sleep Put baby down drowsy but awake if you can, or settle to sleep if needed.

Then the cycle repeats every 2–3 hours through the day.

Download The Wake to Sleep Cycle PDF here

As your baby grows, these cycles will naturally lengthen — feeds stretch further apart and wake windows get longer.

At night, the cycle simplifies to: feed → sleep → feed → sleep. No active time needed — keep night feeds calm, quiet and unstimulating.

The 2 Month Old Baby Sleep Schedule

This sleep schedule for a 2 month old is based on a 7am wake-up.

Shift everything forward or back to match the time that suits you to start the day.

Download the FREE 2 Month Sleep Schedule here

Understanding Split Feeds & Top-Up Feeds

These two feeding techniques are key to making this baby sleep schedule work — aiding the longer lunchtime nap as well as the first night stretch.

What’s a top-up feed?

A top-up is similar — a small extra amount of milk offered shortly before a nap.

Again, the idea is that your baby can wait a little longer for the next feed a little which will encourage a longer sleep.

Before the lunchtime nap, offer a top-up feed

This helps ensure that hunger doesn’t cut this nap short.

What’s a split feed?

A split feed is when you divide a feed into two halves with a break in between.

Instead of offering the full feed in one go, you give the first half — one breast, or half the bottle — take a break, then offer the second half later.

The break allows your baby to build a little more appetite, meaning they drink more in total at the second sitting. A fuller tummy means a longer stretch before the next feed — and a longer sleep.

Feed 4 is a split feed

The first half of the feed is given at 5pm, before the bath. Then once baby is changed, swaddled and in her sleep space, the second half is given at 6pm in full wind-down mode.

Baby then settles for her first night sleep and — with a full tummy — should sleep through to the Dream feed at 10pm.

The “Dream Feed” at 10pm — also a split feed

You may have understood the “dream feed” to be feeding baby in a dream like state, but at 2 months old age, a very sleepy feed normally means a very small feed.

At this feed, like all feeds, you want your baby to eat as much as possible, to maximise the time until your baby is hungry again. So to delay the first night waking, you want to encourage a really good feed at 10 pm.

Splitting this feed is the trick to making it work. It gives your baby a chance to stay a little more alert and eat a bit more. Then sleep a longer stretch afterwards.

Here’s how the dream feed should look at 2 months old:

• 9.50pm: wake baby, change diaper, 10 minutes of gentle activity to get baby properly awake
• 10pm: first half of the feed
• 10 minutes of activity to rouse baby again
• Check diaper
• Take to the sleep space and swaddle
• 10.30–10.45pm: second half of the feed
• Settle by 11pm

For more tips on getting the dream feed right, read: The dream feed: an insanely simple solution to dramatically more sleep.

The Long Lunchtime Nap

The most restorative nap of the day is that big middle-of-the-day stretch — 2.5 hours.

This is the nap that really helps your baby (and you!) recharge.

However, it doesn’t always come naturally – many babies naturally tend towards a long morning nap. Which then normally means a very long and often testing afternoon and evening, even with a short nap or two!

Trust me, follow this baby sleep schedule, with its long lunchtime nap and you’ll have a content and happy baby for the rest of the day.

So, there are three keys to establishing this long lunchtime nap:

1. Keeping the morning nap short, which means a maximum of 1 hour at 2 months. This should give your baby just the right amount of tired to fall into a good long stretch at nap 2.
2. A top-up feed at 11.30 am 30 minutes before the nap is due to start. This means baby shouldn’t wake early from this nap due to hunger, as explained above.
3. That all important sleep space as described above that eliminates disturbances.

This 2 month baby sleep schedule takes care of the first 2 for you.

Struggling with short naps? The post linked has 9 practical tactics that actually work.

Download the FREE 2 Month Sleep Schedule here

Implementing The Schedule In The Beginning

Starting this 2 month baby sleep schedule can seem pretty daunting, especially if the core concepts that make up the 3 part framework are new to you. There’s a lot of new stuff going on!

There’s an easy way….

With all 4 of my babies I’ve used the buggy, baby carrier, car (basically whatever it takes) to get naps established and roughly in line with the scheduled timings.

In time you can remove those sleep aids and you’d be surprised how the routine sticks!

So if you need sleep aids to get started — use them.

Whatever gets nap times established in the early weeks, use them.

Just try to remove them by the 3 month mark.

Sleep associations develop around this time, when sleep begins to mature. The longer your baby relies on being fed or rocked to sleep, the harder it becomes to remove.

If you can start putting baby down drowsy but awake before 3 months, even just once or twice a day, you’ll thank yourself later.

More Tips For Making The 2 Month Old Sleep Schedule Work

If you have errands to run, a school run to do, or another little one to juggle, sticking to exact timings every day may well be impossible.

Here are some tips for those messier days as well as some for other common obstacles like growth spurts.

Time car journeys with nap times where you can

If your baby falls asleep in the car, your carefully planned nap schedule can go straight out the window!

If yours is a baby who drops off in the car (not all do), try to plan journeys to coincide with a scheduled nap time. That way the car does the settling work for you.

Don’t miss feeds — even if timings slip

If you get behind on the schedule, do whatever you can to catch up on feeds. Do not skip a feed.

Any milk missed in the day will be made up for at night — guaranteed. Even if the timings go a little awry, make sure you get those feeds in somehow!

Keep an eye on total daytime sleep

When things go off course, try to avoid your baby sleeping too much in the day overall.

Too much day sleep almost always means more night waking. If a nap has run long, cut the next one a little shorter to compensate.

Flex around growth spurts

Growth spurts can temporarily throw everything off.

Your baby will want to feed more, may be fussier, and may sleep differently for a few days.

Don’t panic — just go with it, feed on demand, and get back to the schedule when things settle. Start each day fresh.

If baby is very gassy, colicky or has reflux try to get to the

Adjusting The Schedule To Suit Your Baby

Every baby is different — some need more sleep, some less. Some can go longer between feeds, especially formula-fed babies.

Think of the schedule as a framework, not a fixed rule. You may find you need to adjust the nap timings while keeping feed times the same, or stretch feeds a little further apart while keeping naps in place. Be led by your baby.

Signs your baby needs less day sleep

• Waking more at night, or taking a long time to settle after night feeds
• Waking early from day naps for no obvious reason — not hungry, not uncomfortable

Signs your baby needs longer between feeds

• Not hungry at scheduled feed times
• Not drinking as much as usual at a feed

How Long Until My 2 month Old Sleeps Through The Night?

My first two (breastfed) babies started sleeping through the night (from the Dream feed to 7am) at 3 months old following this exact schedule. The twins weren’t that far behind.

It’s absolutely possible your baby sleeping through isn’t far away. But it takes consistency. The foundations you lay now, with a solid schedule, good nap habits, and a wind-down routine, are exactly what gets you there.

For my top 10 tips on getting baby to sleep all night, head to these 10-step no-cry sleep strategies.

Nap Schedule Changes To Make From 2 Months to 3 Months

As your baby grows, sleep needs will reduce just a little and they should be able to manage a little longer between feeds.

Look for signs your 2 month old is ready to cut back on naps:

• Waking early from day naps or mid-nap and not hungry
• Taking a long time to settle for naps and at bedtime
• Waking up more at night and/or taking a while to settle after night feeds

When cutting back naps, protect the long lunchtime nap and bedtime.

• If your baby is hard to settle for the lunchtime nap (nap 2), start cutting down nap 1.
• If your baby is not tired at bedtime and settling long after 7pm, cut down the late afternoon nap (nap 3) down. This will become more of a catnap — 20 to 30 minutes.

When cutting back naps, adjust slowly, by a few minutes every day,

Here are a summary of nap schedule changes from 2 months to 3 months:

Feed Schedule Changes To Make From 2 Months to 3 Months

Look for signs your 2 month old is ready to increase time between feeds:

• Not hungry when the scheduled feed time arrives — turning away, showing little interest, taking only a small amount
• Not finishing feeds — drinking less than usual at a scheduled feed
• Waking later than usual from naps, making the next scheduled feed feel too soon
• Becoming a more efficient feeder — taking a full feed in less time

Here are some tips for delaying feed times:

• Stretch feed times gradually, a few minutes every day
• Never push feeds back so that baby becomes frantic with hunger — a frantically hungry baby gulps, swallows more air, and is harder to settle
• The key rule is always be led by your baby
• Only remove the top-up feed once the lunchtime nap is well-established

Here are a summary of feed schedule changes from 2 months to 3 months:

More 2 MONTH OLD Schedule Download Options

Download more 2 Month Old Sleep Schedule for FREE here

Ready to move to the next schedule?

Once your baby is approaching the timings on the right of the above tables, it’s time to transition to the 3 month sleep schedule.

Don’t rush it — be led by your baby, not the calendar!

More posts you’ll love:

• A newborn sleep & feeding schedule: 2 weeks to 3 months
• Newborn sleep patterns decoded
• 9 reasons baby wakes at night & how to fix them
• Baby wakes after 30 minutes at night: 7 ways to fix it
• 9 baby sleep mistakes (that I totally made too)
• 25 newborn baby tips for the first 6 weeks

Happy sleeping! 🌙