Need advice on setting earlier bedtime

Annaeliz84

My LO is a late to bed late to rise kind of guy.  No matter what I've do he wont go to sleep and stay asleep before AT LEAST 11pm.  Sometimes he waits as late as 12am or even 1am!  I'm trying to help him get into an earlier bedtime routine but nothing is working!

Every night around 8pm I swaddle him, nurse him, burp him, put him in the rock and play in a dark room with a white noise machine, pop a pacifier in his mouth, and rock him until he falls asleep (this takes 30-45 minutes if it works at all).  If he actually falls asleep he wakes up after 10-15 minutes and then we can't get him back down until after 11pm.  Once he finally goes back to sleep he does sleep for 4-6 hours before waking up again.  I know I should be happy about the large chunk of sleep but trying to get him to go to bed around 8pm is completely consuming our evenings!

Does anyone have any other suggestions/advice?  Should I just give up and let him hang out with me and my DH in the evenings?  Please help!

kgs0505

sorry, i'm on mobile, how old is he? If he's younger than 2ish months, he probably won't respond yet to a bedtime routine. just keep working at it. i would also try and get him to be a little more active during the day. you probably need to try and shift one of his awake periods earlier. it sounds like he wants to be awake right now from 811.

=Lee=B

If I get mine to sleep by 6 or 7 she sleeps through till morning (waking to eat a couple times).  If we keep her up past 7ish then she will fight it and stay up till 11pm.

Try earlier...there is sometimes a window of opportunity early in the evening that works like a charm!

laurenhankey

At about 4 weeks we began the EASY routine throughout the day.  Eat, Activity, Sleep and then time for You.  Because we did this it helped LO get into a routine and really helped w/ bedtime.  It took a few weeks for her to get the hang of it but we were consistent.  She's stay awake for generally 1 1/2 hours and then nap for about 3 (at that age).  Even though she wasn't STTN we would still put her in her crib so she'd get used to it.  We were putting her down real late, too but moved it earlier and earlier by 20 minutes every few nights until we settled on 630.  This is what worked for us!  Definitely worth a try!

VPGIRL06

i'd start the bedtime routine earlier; this might help. We start our bedtime routine sometimes as early as 6:45, depending on when she awoke from her last nap.  The goal is to get her to sleep before 8pm, because after that she has a harder time going down.  Usually she's asleep by 7:30-7:45 and will awake anytime between 4-4:30 (today was a freak occurrence and she awoke at 3:15) then back down until 6ish, then back down until 8. 

 

MrsRKJ

VPGIRL06:

i'd start the bedtime routine earlier; this might help. We start our bedtime routine sometimes as early as 6:45, depending on when she awoke from her last nap.  The goal is to get her to sleep before 8pm, because after that she has a harder time going down.  Usually she's asleep by 7:30-7:45 and will awake anytime between 4-4:30 (today was a freak occurrence and she awoke at 3:15) then back down until 6ish, then back down until 8.

 

Can you share what you do for  your bedtime routine?  Thanks! 

VPGIRL06

usually I have her take a nap before....maybe around 5/530.  A quick catnap or else she'd be ready for bed at like 6! Then I wait about 30-45 minutes after she's woken up from that nap to do the bedtime routine. 

first, we take a bath. Either just her, or if for some reason she's cranky, both her and I go into the bath.  usually about 15 minutes, if she'll tolerate

then we put a diaper on and swaddle.  then we look at the mobile in her crib while i make her bottle; it helps to slowly calm her down (she really doesn't like the transition from bath to getting changed)

then we have a bottle.  hopefully it's a big one, but sometimes it's only 2-3 oz

then I rock her. in the beginning I rocked her completely asleep. i've slowly begun to adjust the rocking time*, because as soon as she's done with the bottle she closes her eyes because she's aware of whats next. then I put her to bed, and sometimes she'll open her eyes right away or sometimes she'll keep them closed. either way at this point, she'll put herself to sleep. maybe some light fussing, but nothing to go into the room for

 

*i have to rock her longer now because if she's somewhat awake when it's fairly light out, she won't sleep.  she'll put herself down if it's dark though. 

Annaeliz84

I put him to bed at 6:30 tonight and he is still sleeping an hour later!  Thank you all SO much!  Fingers crossed that he stays asleep!