Bedtimes when bed-sharing?

meldoll8

I was wondering how those of you who bed-share handle bedtime with your LO? We have had a family bed since day one with our 3 month old, and just take her to bed with us once we're ready for sleep. The problem is that I work until 11pm 4 nights a week, and feel like I'm doing my DD a disservice by not getting her to bed earlier. Am I being paranoid here, or is this normal procedure (I'm a FTM, so I'm a little paranoid about everything lol).

Emerald27

That bedtime may work just fine for her. The important thing is really that she's getting enough sleep in a 24 hour period and that you're following her tiredness cues. If she wakes a bit later in the morning, takes normal naps, and is a happy baby, then there's nothing to fix! If she's grumpy, not getting enough sleep, or acting really tired as the night goes on, an earlier bedtime might be a good idea. Try not to overthink and just follow baby's cues and do what works best for you guys.

I like to put DS to bed around 9-9:30pm and have some time to myself or with DH before I go to bed between 10 and 10:30pm. We start the bedtime routine around 8:30. DS takes a bath, gets a clean diaper and PJs, daddy reads him a book, and then I snuggle in bed and nurse him to sleep.

When DS was an infant (he's 2 now) we didn't really have a routine. He fell asleep so easily nursing snuggled in bed that one really wasn't necessary. I would just take him to bed whenever I or he was ready.

ncbelle

I put the kids to bed when they needed to go down and joined them later.

musicalmama5

I put DS down around 7, snuggle with him in bed a bit before sneaking away. If he wakes before I'm ready for bed, I just go lie with him and nurse a bit til he's asleep again then sneak away again.

st.augbride

musicalmama5 said:

I put DS down around 7, snuggle with him in bed a bit before sneaking away. If he wakes before I'm ready for bed, I just go lie with him and nurse a bit til he's asleep again then sneak away again.

This is what I do too. I leave a video monitor on her to watch her until I join her later.