later bed time?

Breezy8407

I posted a while back about my DS waking at 3-4:30 am each morning. While that's gotten somewhat better, the majority of the time one or both is awake by 4:45-5 each day. As they are getting older, I am starting to wonder if pushing their bedtime back slightly would make a difference? They are usually in bed by 7, sleeping by 7:15 at the latest. I love having a few hours in the evening to get stuff done, but the mornings have been hard.

They are starting to take longer naps at daycare (finally!) so I think they seem better rested than a few months ago. I would love for them to make it even to 5:30-6 so our morning routine is a little easier.

Anyone have success with pushing bed time back? Should I wait until they are closer to a year and not taking two naps?

LALASEPT05

Getting DS to get to 6am was really hard and then getting him past that to 7am did take a little while but we did get there. I think at 9 months our guys were going down about 7:40pm and were asleep by8pm. DD is more of a sleeper so she went to sleep right away but DS usually rolled around his crib for a bit and usually finally fell asleep around 8 or even 8:15pm some nights. I think you could try pushing it maybe 30 minutes to see what that gets you. It may take a little while for them to adjust to it though. Good luck!

regenab

I followed Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child and he suggests and even earlier bedtime. My girls bedtime was 7pm, lights out asleep, some nights they went even earlier between 6:30 and 7pm. Setting ourselves on a twelve hour schedule. They were asleep by 7pm and wake time was 7am. So if you want them to go to 6am, you should put them down asleep, lights out by 6pm. Sleep begets sleep. So once they are getting more overnight sleep they will take longer and better naps during the day and once they take longer better naps during the day they sleep longer and longer at night. It make take some time to fine tune this, but I would shoot for a 6pm bedtime. If they start getting up at 4am for a feeding, just make it a short in the dark no talking feeding and put them right back down to sleep so they sleep until at least 6am. Then at 6am, get them up for the day, feed them and dress them, open up the blinds to let the sunshine in (once it rises) and set their clocks to this routine.

Pushing back their bedtime to later, will just make them sleep less and that will be counterproductive. Most babies are on our 12 hour overnight sleep schedule by 6-9 months old. It is good for them and their development. But I was a bit of a sleep nazi the first year. But as a result I had great nappers that put themselves to sleep and rarely had afternoon meltdowns, they were happy bubbly babies because they were very well rested. I am not trying to push you to do this or brag, it is just very important they get enough sleep and I would not push them later for their sake and yours. Sleep is important for you all.

Jen0204

regenab:

I followed Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child and he suggests and even earlier bedtime.

Pushing back their bedtime to later, will just make them sleep less and that will be counterproductive.

I agree with these points.

We've noticed that no matter what, the girls are up for good for the day by 6-6:30.  There have been nights when they have gone down late (even as late as 10pm the night of their party) and they're up at the same time the next day.  When I mentioned this to their doctor he said that it's very common for kids to have an internal clock with a specific wake up time.

Lately the girls have been starting to fuss around 4:30am.  This has been driving me nuts.  We tried giving them Tylenol before bed in case it was a teething issue and it didn't help.  Last night I put them to bed at 6:45 instead of 7:30 and there was no fussing until 5:15am.  When I got home from the gym at 6:50am H had just finished getting them dressed, so I'm guessing they were up for the day at 6:30.  I said to H this morning that I want to keep putting them to bed between 6:30-6:45pm in hopes that the earlier bedtime will eventually solve the MOTN fussing problems.

BananaPancake

regenab:

I followed Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child and he suggests and even earlier bedtime. My girls bedtime was 7pm, lights out asleep, some nights they went even earlier between 6:30 and 7pm. Setting ourselves on a twelve hour schedule. They were asleep by 7pm and wake time was 7am. So if you want them to go to 6am, you should put them down asleep, lights out by 6pm. Sleep begets sleep. So once they are getting more overnight sleep they will take longer and better naps during the day and once they take longer better naps during the day they sleep longer and longer at night. It make take some time to fine tune this, but I would shoot for a 6pm bedtime. If they start getting up at 4am for a feeding, just make it a short in the dark no talking feeding and put them right back down to sleep so they sleep until at least 6am. Then at 6am, get them up for the day, feed them and dress them, open up the blinds to let the sunshine in once it rises and set their clocks to this routine. Pushing back their bedtime to later, will just make them sleep less and that will be counterproductive. Most babies are on our 12 hour overnight sleep schedule by 69 months old. It is good for them and their development. But I was a bit of a sleep nazi the first year. But as a result I had great nappers that put themselves to sleep and rarely had afternoon meltdowns, they were happy bubbly babies because they were very well rested. I am not trying to push you to do this or brag, it is just very important they get enough sleep and I would not push them later for their sake and yours. Sleep is important for you all.

I agree with this wholeheartedly! We followed HSHHC and we have great sleepers they need a LOT more sleep at this age than we realize!

AmyJoy728

My boys have never gone down before 9-930. They have been sleeping until 730. 

LottaLattes

I just started trying to push bedtime back an hour. First night was a success, second my husband put them to bed as I had a CPR class and he put them down an hour later than the later hour and they were up at 5:30 again. So I am sticking with my 7:30 bedtime, as they were sleeping around 6:30 before.

Sorry, this is all rambly, arr!

MrsLnt

regenab:

I followed Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child and he suggests and even earlier bedtime. My girls bedtime was 7pm, lights out asleep, some nights they went even earlier between 6:30 and 7pm. Setting ourselves on a twelve hour schedule. They were asleep by 7pm and wake time was 7am. So if you want them to go to 6am, you should put them down asleep, lights out by 6pm. Sleep begets sleep. So once they are getting more overnight sleep they will take longer and better naps during the day and once they take longer better naps during the day they sleep longer and longer at night. It make take some time to fine tune this, but I would shoot for a 6pm bedtime. If they start getting up at 4am for a feeding, just make it a short in the dark no talking feeding and put them right back down to sleep so they sleep until at least 6am. Then at 6am, get them up for the day, feed them and dress them, open up the blinds to let the sunshine in (once it rises) and set their clocks to this routine.

Pushing back their bedtime to later, will just make them sleep less and that will be counterproductive. Most babies are on our 12 hour overnight sleep schedule by 6-9 months old. It is good for them and their development. But I was a bit of a sleep nazi the first year. But as a result I had great nappers that put themselves to sleep and rarely had afternoon meltdowns, they were happy bubbly babies because they were very well rested. I am not trying to push you to do this or brag, it is just very important they get enough sleep and I would not push them later for their sake and yours. Sleep is important for you all.

All of this!

There is a crazy sleep regression around 8-9 months so that could be part of the early wakeups you're experiencing. I'd just ride it out and stick with the early bedtime.

Mine were 18 months at LEAST before they could handle going to bed later than 7 and around 2y their schedule has shifted to where they nap 1-4 instead of 12-3, and bedtime is now 8 instead of 7 or 7:30.  

Reilly626

My 6 month olds go down at 8:30 and wake at 6:30. I can't imagine earlier because I space their feedings out.  

Breezy8407

Thanks everyone for your input and advice. Right now, 7pm is about the earliest I can get them to bed during the week. We get home from daycare, do dinner, baths, bottles, then bed. When I am on my own it takes me the entire 2 hours to do all this, and it doesn't leave anytime for playing I don't know how I would get any earlier than 7 at this point. I might revisit this come spring/summer. I want to be able to play outside or go for a short walk after work/daycare. They will be home with H starting in late June, so we won't have a time they have to get up, so hopefully they can get into a more natural sleep pattern that isn't dictated by our work schedule.