Another sleep question....

[mommd]

OK, so I keep reading about everyone's babies going to sleep at like 6:30 or even 8:30. How do you get them to go to sleep this early? My DD doesn't go to sleep for the night until 10:30! She sleeps until 6:00, eats, and then goes back to seep until 8:30. How do I get her to go to sleep earlier???

[lisaE]

Maybe it's just the age, because we got DS into a pattern where we bathe him, nurse him, lights out, everything quiet, and he would fall right to sleep. Well it's all over now, even though we still go through all the same steps. Now he just squirms and "talks" until he's ready to go to sleep. We start getting him ready at 9pm, and sometimes he stays awake until 10:30. Now, after he eats, if he is awake, I just have him lie down on our bed with us until he falls asleep. It works for us.
BTW, I am so jealous of that nice long stretch of sleep you get!

[mommd]

You know, she went from waking up 2-3 times a night to sleeping through the night instantly. One magical night two weeks ago she just decided she needed more sleep I guess! We also start the routine at 9pm, maybe we should start earlier?

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

Our son stays up late too...but since I stay at home and don't go off to work we actually prefer it this way.
For example he woke this morning at 9:45...I got to get some stuff done before he woke up.

Just make sure that that is what you truely want at this stage fi you go tweeking it...

Don't get me wrong there are many nights I look at the clock at 7:00PM and feel like it is still afternoon and I think to myslef "hmmm if Tristan had an early bedtime DH and I could just kick back and relax on the sofa all cuddly etc...."...
So I guess I wish we could do a "swing sleep" pattern here...
But this really works for us so we are OK with it...

I jsut reminded you that an earlier sleep will probably be an earlier rise and just wanted to make sure you'd thought thru it (of course you have) :)...

I do look forward to what folks have to say incase we are ready to take the steps...:)
Neve
http://home.nc.rr.com/ourbabytristan
AKA "mama2be"-forgot password
and Baby Boy Tristan born @UNC
Feb 25, 2003
Brother to 3 pups "gees" and 2 kitties

[Momof3Labs]

Gradually try moving up her bedtime by starting the bedtime routine earlier. Only move it a half hour at a time, every few days or so. If she fights you, back off.

Even as a newborn, Colin's longest sleep stretch started around 5pm (he'd go 5pm-10pm), so his early bedtime kind of fell into place itself. But if we get off of our routine (or after the clocks change) we just get him back in by shifting things a half hour at a time.

For quite a while, he'd be in bed by 6-6:30pm. That's now more like 7-7:30pm, but he also wakes between 6 and 7am most days and is up for GOOD! So be prepared to rise with the roosters!

[mharling]

Lane usually goes to bed between 7 & 7:30, but I will say that it was a gradual process to get there. Honestly, he didn't really have a 'bedtime' until he was 3-4 months old and it was between 9 & 10. Before that, it could be as late as 11 or 12 until he started his 'big chunk' of sleep.

Your dd is definitely too young to do any sort of sleep training. I think the important thing at this age is to establish the bedtime routine, regardless of the bedtime. When you're ready, you can gradually start moving up her bedtime. Try 15 minutes one night and see what happens. When you're comfortable, try another 15 minutes. This all depends on her feeding schedule, of course.

I remember being in your shoes last summer wondering when I'd have the baby who would gloriously sleep from (give or take) 7 to 7. Yes, it *can* happen. Just be patient and gentle with your approach and see what happens. :) And if it doesn't happen, you can find support here for that too.

Mary & Lane 4/6/03
[link:www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b370a2992536|Birthday Pics!!]

[pritchettzoo]

As long as she's happy and sleeping well, I really wouldn't monkey with her schedule. My DD goes to sleep around 11:30 and sleeps until say 8 am, gets up to nurse, and then sleeps until 11 am. She's happy, and DH is happy because he actually gets to see her and spend time with her. He typically gets home from work at 7:30 or later.

If it's really bothering you, you could start trying to nudge her 15 minutes earlier at a time. Also, babies' sleeping habits are NOTORIOUSLY unreliable. Just because she's doing it now doesn't mean she'll be doing it in a month or two! :)

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[jubilee]

My son didn't get into this pattern until he was around 16 weeks old, but he sleeps from 7pm- 6:30am now. I recommend reading Dr. Marc Weissbluth's book. It really helped me out. Of course sleep is such a fickle thing with babies... we were doing so good until recently and now his naps are messed up. Weissbluth's book is one I refer to all the time as my baby goes through sleep changes.

[egoldber]

You can try moving the bedtime earlier. But if this schedule works for you, then there's no need to really change it. My DD was a 9 - 9 sleeper for a long time, maybe 12 to 18 months? After 18 months, thorugh no actions on my part, she started gradually waking earlier and earlier. When this happened, I started moving her bedtime forward so that she still got the same amount of sleep.

At least in our case, I have never found that when DD goes to bed has any impact on when she wakes up. Whether she goes to bed at 7, 8, 9, or 10, she wakes up between 6 and 7 these days (with the occasional glorious sleep in until 7:30). But if she goes to bed earlier, she's a MUCH happier child the next day.

HTH,

[momma_boo]

Hmm. Your DD is about 3.5 months old, right?
My DD wouldn't go to bed until 11 until she was about 4 mos old. It was right about the time I went back to work that she started going to sleep earlier (between 9 and 10). I've never really tried to get her to sleep earlier and these days she regularly goes to bed between 8 and 9. If I got my act together a little better once I got home from work, she'd probably go to sleep a little earlier.

[ritacheetah]

My daughter keeps changing. Right after I returned to work she was falling asleep at 6:30 (not used to getting up so early), which bummed me out because I didn't get much time to spend with her. Then she got used to the new schedule and the time change and settled in on about 8:30, which I loved. Then she started taking nap #3 at 7pm and wouldn't go to bed for the night until after 9. Now, she has dropped nap #3 and is back to falling asleep at 7:30 (and sleeps until 6:30am).

Not sure if they just kind of settle on a schedule on their own or not. I wonder if she'll be an early riser all her life? Your baby sounds like she's on my schedule. I'd go back to sleep until 8:30am if I didn't have to get up for work!


Live long and prosper,
Tracy
Mom to Victoria, 12/20/03

[amp]

When my son was as young as your DD is, he didn't go to bed quite so early either. I mean, he was up every two hours anyway, so "bedtime" was relative. I don't think we started getting him down for a bedtime (which is no longer very static around here) until he was maybe 5-6 mths old. I tried before that, but he'd still be up in a couple of hours, so it really didn't mean anything.

[lmariana]

It's totally a gradual process, in our experience. Gabe didn't start his 8 PM bedtime until recently, when he dropped the third nap. Now, he's down to 2 naps, 3 full meals, and 1 extra bedtime bottle. Before that, he had 3-4 naps, 2 full feedings, 3 additional bottle feedings, and an 11 PM bedtime.

When I noticed he was not wanting the third nap, we just lengthened his wake times and started moving up the bedtime. I just went for it one day and moved it up from 10 PM to 8, just to see how it went, and he slept until 7 AM!

I have an article from Parenting magazine about baby sleep that helped us a lot. If you want, I'd be happy to email it to you! (It's a .pdf file and about 2 MB in size)

Mariana
Mother of Gabriel, 08/14/2003