bedtime/sleep Q
I was just reading a post on my birth month board about someone complaining that her child is waking up once during the night and what she's doing wrong that he's not sleeping 10-12 hours like Babywise or "everyone else's" babies are. I thought that was funny to assume that all babies will truly STTN (as in all night) at 7 months, or is it just me?
E goes to bed at about 8:00 (sometimes 8:30), wakes up around 3-4, eats, and promptly goes back to sleep until about 8 a.m. or so. I'm really, really happy with that. She takes 2 naps during the day of about 1-2 hours each (sometimes a 3rd if we're really busy or going places in the car).
However, a lot of the moms on my birth month board were saying that anything past 7 or 7:30 is way too late of a bedtime for a baby this age. Should I be putting her to bed earlier?
Re: bedtime/sleep Q
All of this sounds like M around 7 months. She didn't STTN until she was 11.5 months. E is doing great!
Getting 12 hours of sleep is just fine.
Laurel STTN with zero wakeups after 2 days of CIO (for night wakings) at around 7 months. I was ok with her getting up once (Heaven compared to when they're 4 weeks old, right?!), but her ped said it was ok to CIO for those night wakings, and that she was at a healthy weight, didn't need that extra feeding, yadda yadda. Getting rid of the night wakings was honestly so easy for us. She cried for 10 minutes and fell back asleep. Now going to sleep.... that's another story....
Granted, she still NOW sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night, but it's not out of hunger, now it's just when she's sick or teething.
A) I would have been thrilled if C woke only once per night at that age.
C) Charlie's bedtime is 9:30pm, ish. We are night owls and sleep in when possible, so we prefer it. Getting up before 8:30 or so is not high on mine or A's list of things that make us happy. And frankly, we like (as we talked about last night) the flexibility to be able to go out and do stuff with her for dinner, take her to the ILs for babysitting and not worry about her "needing" to go to bed. And plus DH gets home from work between 7:30-8 at least one night per week, so an early bedtime would mean no family dinner or daddy-Charlie time. I say that you do what works for your family and not worry about what other people are doing. I'm sure there are people that think I'm nuts for letting my kid stay up as late as she does, but it's what works for us so until we need to be getting up earlier on a more regular basis I'm not gonna fool with it.
D) Bishes be crazy. And judgy.
There's definitely a book or two out there that claim that all kids should go to bed before some certain time. Which, come on. That's BS. Kids all have different needs and rhythms. Neither of my kids has ever slept a 12 hour night that I can recall. And they go to bed later too. It works for us, it works for them, they take good naps, etc...
I can't even remember what either of them were doing at 7 months but it was nothing even close to STTN. Cooper's version of STTN now is still only like 8.5-9.5 hours. But then he takes a 2.5 hour nap that I usually have to wake him up from. He's getting on the lower end of the "normal range" of sleep for his age. Ben has always been on the lower end too.
The only Easter Bunny I can get behind.
Maxwell Joseph 4/09 Lucy Violet 10/12
Thanks, ladies - you pretty much affirmed that I was not the crazy bad mommy (which I didn't feel like until I read that stupid thread. Another reason the internet can suck sometimes).
And Shane, I PPH you!
Didn't read other responses yet, but don't worry at all! K was going to bed after 10pm at that age. If we'd try to bump her earlier she rebelled and it was ugly.
Do what works for your family. E sounds like she has a sleep habit that is getting her the rest she needs!