interrupting lo's schedule

Kimosabie

I just thought I'd ask if you do this and how often.  DS usually goes down for the night sometimes as early as 6:30.  Usually by 7 he is in bed asleep.  My in-laws are always inviting us to go out to dinners and all this stuff in the evening time usually around his bed time. We usually end up turning them down only because we were really trying to get DS on a bed time schedule early on, and dinners with DH's family last at least 2 hours! Just curious to see what other mamas do..do you stick to lo's bedtime or will you bring them out during the time they usually go down?

I should also add that my ds has a hard time sleeping anywhere but home, he can never nap at someone else's house, in car seat (unless in moving car) etc

Babalonia

I'm pretty strict with DS's schedule although he goes down by 8:30pm. But after 7:30 he gets cranky. Over the holiday no matter what I had him home by 8pm. Xmas night we slept at my moms and had him in bed a little later by 9:00pm and it cried for a good 15-20 mins..I think it was more overtired because my mom watches him and he naps there during the day.

I'm nervous right now to do anything other than his normal schedule/bed time routine. But my DS isn't an easy going baby especially in the evenings. 

2BlackCats

If we are already out and she is in a good mood, we will keep her out.  I bring PJs and we will get her ready for bed right before leaving. She falls asleep in the car and we transfer her from the carseat to the crib asleep.

 

We do not bring her out at bedtime, instead we find a sitter to watch her at the house after we put her to bed.   

mesmom2011

We're not on a rigid schedule.  We sort of follow LO's cues, but she is generally in bed by 9 or 9:30 (she sleeps until 8:30 or 9).  My LO is rather easy-going and if she's tired, will just lay her head down on my shoulder and take a nap.  We generally try to be home by her bedtime, but don't worry too much if she misses bath time.  If my LO needed the bedtime routine and a set time to go to bed, I'd be more careful to give her that.

belladonna11307

Our LO is really laid back and will sleep just about anywhere, so we'll tote her along, either expecting to be holding a sleeping baby, or if we can bring the PNP we do that.  Trying to keep her awake is asking for trouble because she'll have a melt down if we do.  So I guess we don't so much interrupt her schedule as we work with it.

mel1358

We have a pretty good schedule right now of solids at 5:30, bath at 6:00, last bottle at 6:30 and bed time at 7:00.  This really makes for a happy baby, so DH and I are not messing with it.

 At this moment, my mom is not speaking to me because she thinks this is crazy.  She is tired of us always telling her we can't do this or that.  We have tried keeping her up, but it just makes for a really rough night.  She gets to the point where she is over tired and can't settle herself.  She put herself on this schedule and I'm just following her lead.  I'm sure we will get to a point where we can be more flexible but for now this is it.  She seems to do well with eating and napping wherever during the day, it's just the evening where she needs consistency.  I wish my family would just us raise our daughter the way we think is best and accept it. 

CurlGurl

We also have a pretty rigid schedule, but DD sleeps 12+ hours a night, so I am not messing with it.   DD gets her bath at around 6, nurses and then is down for the night by 6:45.  If we want to make plans in the evening, we will get a sitter, or if we are going to someone's house, we have a travel crib and will do her normal schedule (except skip the bath) and put her down in the travel crib.  Unfortunately we have to wake her to get into the carseat and drive home, but she usually goes right back down once we got home.  We've done this a handful of times, but I won't make it a regular thing since I don't like to disrupt her sleep. 

MissManda

IL's get mad at me because I WILL NOT take DS out after 5:30. It's not that I don't WANT to - it's that he won't sleep in my arms anymore, and after 6:15 or 6:30, he screams if we aren't doing his bedtime routine.

For now, we either order in and have people over (and then I put DS to bed when it's time), or get a sitter. If DH and I are going out, we have the sitter come over after DS is in bed because we both hate missing bath and story time!

mommy452011

THIS!

 

Same here, my little girl is way to interested in everyone and everything else to just "fall asleep" while we're out. She has never been one to just sleep in the grocery store or her stroller. So we are the same way we do NOT take her out after 5:30.

People need to accept and respect our routine --  if they complain or criticize then they can come to my house and put down an over-tired, cranky baby on their own!   

JsMama11

J really doesn't have a daytime schedule but has set a pretty consistent bedtime schedule for himself. Solids @ 6pm, pjs, book, bottle, in bed @ 7pm and he falls asleep between 7-7:30. I do not mess with this ever and my family anf friends respect it. Even on Christmas Eve which is typically a late night we left at 6:30pm.

Sleep is so important for babies and this is such a short time in their lives. If your LO needs the structure (and it sounds like she does) then everyone else just has to get over it.

jerol

All of my DD's really need/ed their early bedtimes or they would get cranky-  So as babies- we are very strict with their bedtime.  We have gone out for dinner early (around 5pm), have people to our house or do dinner at other's houses and put them down there in the PnP.   With the older 2 we are much more flexible- but they still wake up early in the morning!  (uggh!)

tokenhoser

We'll mess with naps, but not bedtime. It's pointless. He's a mess if we push him past 7:30, which is no fun for anyone.

Just be firm. Lunches work better, end of negotiations.

Nechie122

My DD is one of those babies who gets completely thrown off by any change in her routine. If we put her to bed too late, she'll be up every two hours, screaming her head off. She's always been very high maintenance.

That said, DH and I will interrupt her schedule for something important. We live far from our families so we let her stay up late when we see them. Similarly, we took one overnight road trip with her and kept her up two hours past her bedtime because DH and I were enjoying ourselves in a new city.

In general, though, while we still go out to eat at least twice a week, we always go at 6 so we can be home at a reasonable time.

fancynewbeesly

mel1358:

We have a pretty good schedule right now of solids at 5:30, bath at 6:00, last bottle at 6:30 and bed time at 7:00.  This really makes for a happy baby, so DH and I are not messing with it.

 At this moment, my mom is not speaking to me because she thinks this is crazy.  She is tired of us always telling her we can't do this or that.  We have tried keeping her up, but it just makes for a really rough night.  She gets to the point where she is over tired and can't settle herself.  She put herself on this schedule and I'm just following her lead.  I'm sure we will get to a point where we can be more flexible but for now this is it.  She seems to do well with eating and napping wherever during the day, it's just the evening where she needs consistency.  I wish my family would just us raise our daughter the way we think is best and accept it. 

 

That must be the name Reese. Our daughter put herself on the same schedule.   During the day she is fine, but night time she wants to go to bed at 6:30/7.  

 

Also, since about 3 or 4 months, she really has been sleeping through the night in her crib in her room, so we really can't complain much about the schedule she put herself on.  

IrishEyes0530

tokenhoser:

We'll mess with naps, but not bedtime. It's pointless. He's a mess if we push him past 7:30, which is no fun for anyone.

Just be firm. Lunches work better, end of negotiations.

 

laurakaz13

We're pretty laid back.  LO usually goes to sleep around 7:30.  But if it happens at 6:30 or 7 or later instead, then so be it. 

I would not turn down every single social event at night because of my child's bedtime, but I might ask to change the dinner time to earlier.  I don't see why people can't be a bit more accomodating to your LO's schedule. 

joneae

I would love to be flexible but after this Christmas weekend, I realized we need to be firm with her schedule.  My sister was flying in the Friday before Christmas from Texas and I thought it would be nice to go to dinner with her.  She was going to be about 1 hour away from where we live so I told her if we go to eat at around 5 then I can still be home by 8:30 or 9 which is when DD gets her last bottle.  I should have known better......My family is always running late and seems to eat late dinners.  We did not eat until 8:30...... She would not fall asleep until after 1am.  We are now just kind of recovering from that massive schedule mess.  Lesson learned for sure!

BecauseICan

DD1 and DD2 were/are both on the same schedule around 7 months.  Not because we put them there, but because they put themselves there.  In bed by 6:15 at the latest, and up around 6:15 as well.  It's inconvenient, yes, but there was a spurt with DD2 where she got up 10-12 times a night, and once she decided to sleep there was no way I was doing anything intentionally to interrupt it.

Yes, people find it annoying and in fact we've lost friends because of that and the fact that DD1 absolutely HATED the car until she was about 18 months old.  But we learned with DD1 that this time of necessity for sticking to a schedule is fairly short-lived in the grand scheme of things.  By the time she was 2.5, we could flex her schedule here and there for special times, and she was fine.  So we know that the same will be true for DD2, and we'll just 'suffer' the consequences for now.  We get a lot less flack for it now than we did with DD1--I think everyone knows this time that it's not worth the effort.  They are only this little for awhile.  It's worth the many years of good sleep habits to be a little inconvenienced for a year or so.