Babies: 3 - 6 Months

Bedtime Question

Hello Ladies, DS is 4 months old. His bedtime has been 6:00 for about 2 months, we do bath, lotion, Jammie's, bottle and bed. It's been going very well up until the last week. Granted I'm on school vacation so I know his schedule is messed up but he has been falling asleep at 5! He's cranky, fussy and then just falls asleep on top of me. Do you think his bed time is too late? Should I try moving it up? 5:00 seems way too early to put him to bed. Should I wait a few weeks to see if getting back into the normal me working and him at daycare routine will help? If he's falling asleep early should I just put him to bed or try to keep him awake? I'm trying to follow my instincts but I wanted some advice. Thanks in advance and I'm sorry for the formatting, I'm posting from an iPad.

Re: Bedtime Question

  • I'm in a similar position and will love to hear responses! My husband and I were just discussing whether we should move bedtime back another 1/2 hour since he has been falling asleep shortly before bath time.
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  • I would see if his routine goes back to "normal" once he is back to daycare.  My oldest son's bedtime has always fluctuated when he is off routine.  It may be that since you are home (and I assume interacting with him), that he is just getting a little over stimulated and needs to go to bed early for the time being.  If he is working on hitting a milestone or hitting a growth spurt, this will cause him to be off schedule for a little while too. 
  • I just put her down at 5 in the swing for a short nap while I make dinner.  She gets fussy around that time.  Sometimes she naps sometimes she doesn't but I think you're right 5 is too early for bed for the night.  I think at 4 months they are starting to move into the 3 naps (a.m., midday and a late pm.)
  • Agree. I would let him take a short nap, or at least quiet time in the swing. My LO always takes a short nap in the car on they way home from daycare, so I give him that rest time around 5:00 even if we are home for weekends, etc. I just "accidentally" start making a lot of noise or make the dog bark after 30 minutes or so so he doesn't take too long of a nap so close to bedtime. Our bedtime average around 6:30 tho.
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  • Thanks so much ladies! I appreciate the responses! I'll follow his cues and won't try keeping him up.
  • Also late to the post. My LO goes down for the night between 10-11pm. She has been going down at this time since we brought her home from the hospital. Since I work evenings and don't get home until 1am and she usually cries for another bottle between 9 & 10 anyways, I haven't even attempted putting her down any earlier. She sleeps until 7am-8am which is great so I can "sleep in". I usually don't  fall asleep until 2-3am on work nights. She still naps a lot throughout the day and that works for her. I let her nap whenever and I will only wake her if she's overdue for a feeding or if she has had a super long nap before bedtime. Otherwise, she gets fussy without her naps!
    Mommy to Arielle Jade, 9/2/2014

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  • I've known some people that find out their daycare routine and stick with that during holidays so they don't get too off. I'm stay at home but my response would echo others mostly. My LO has about three naps (morning, afternoon, and evening). One thing I find helps is his naps are pretty predictable so if we're playing and I see that it's coming up on one I try to wind play down. If he's having fun he'll fight sleep and get overstimulated. He has certain cues he's used to for naps as well, same as bedtime and I try to keep those consistent.
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