Is it bad to vary bedtime each night?

BoxTer · January 2010

As in, if N has a bad nap day at school, put her to bed earlier and if she seems OK, put her to bed a little later? Is this going to screw her up if she's got a different bedtime every night? Two days ago, she napped great at school and we put her to bed just before 8 p.m. and she slept until 7, which was great. Yesterday she only slept for 30 minutes at school and we kept her up until 7:40 even though she was obviously tired and getting cranky because we were trying to be consistent. Well, she had a bad night and was up for more than an hour at 2:45 a.m. So maybe we should have put her to bed sooner? I just don't want to flip flop too much, but we're only talking about maybe 30-40 minutes' difference either way so maybe that's not too bad?

SeaSoul · January 2010

Hm, I don't know. We put Cal to bed as soon as he shows signs of tiredness (although never before 6). Sometimes it's 6:00, sometimes closer to 7. But always within that hour. Would there be much variation if you did that?

BoxTer · January 2010

It will probably always be within the 7 p.m. hour. We were putting her to bed every night by around 7:15 p.m. but she was waking up really early, 5 a.m.-5:30 a.m. so our pedi suggested we start shifting her bedtime to closer to 8 p.m. That's fine on some nights if she's had a good nap that day, but nights like last night when she didn't sleep well at school, well, it might be pushing it to keep her up that late.

LVBlvd · January 2010

My DD is much younger, so this might not work for N...but if she gets a bad afternoon nap, we try to get her to take a 10 or 15 minute cat nap in the early evening so she can make it to bedtime. Paige sleeps from 9 PM to 8 AM. If she gets a bad afternoon nap and I know she is tired and fussy, I take her in her room and hold her and she normally falls asleep in my arms. This gives her enough energy to make it to 9 but not too much to make her want to stay up late.

beebe929 · January 2010

We follow her cues still. If naps were crappy at dc she goes to be earlier. We try to make it as late as possible, but some nights even 6pm is pushing it.

I still think the cues are just as important as routine.

SeaSoul · January 2010

I hear you on the early wake-ups. It's tempting to keep them up later to avoid that, but I try to do what I feel is best for him (i.e. let him sleep when he's tired) even if it's not always what would be my 1st choice! Hard to do sometimes!

JGirl2005 · January 2010

LVBlvd:

My DD is much younger, so this might not work for N...but if she gets a bad afternoon nap, we try to get her to take a 10 or 15 minute cat nap in the early evening so she can make it to bedtime. Paige sleeps from 9 PM to 8 AM. If she gets a bad afternoon nap and I know she is tired and fussy, I take her in her room and hold her and she normally falls asleep in my arms. This gives her enough energy to make it to 9 but not too much to make her want to stay up late.

pretty much this...DS's bedtime is 9pm. He is sleepign through the night - wakes up at 730ish to get ready for daycare, but would sleep longer.

Last night he was real fussy when he came home so he slept for 30min from 545pm to 615pm. So I give him a cat nap in the evening if he is crying because he is sleepy. This kinda messed up his schedule...he woke up at 5am for a bottle. But we find better results when we have a lighter cap nap. DH let him sleep too long. He sometimes sleeps for 15min on our way home from daycare (even if he had two naps during the day).

We don't vary his bedtime that much...sometimes it is exactly 9pm, sometimes 930pm.

Mrs.OL · January 2010

I'm a big believer that DS needs a schedule. He is just a crazy baby if his day is thrown off. We put him to bed by 8:00 and he sleeps until 7:15ish. Evenings that he is showing signs of being tired before bedtime we find a quiet activity to do with him (i.e cuddle and read an extra book) to try to get him a little closer to his bed time. If that doesn't work, then he goes down a little earlier. Although I think a schedule does him a ton of good, life happens and you sometimes have to sway from that schedule sometimes.

Mouseygail · January 2010

I don't think a 30-40 minute swing should affect her too much

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