wondering about bedtimes

[tzs]

so i know that most little kids have really early bedtimes....7:00...7:30? 8:00 being late???
and i know from dr. weissbluth's sleep book that at say 8 weeks you push the bedtime up from 10 or 11 to 8ish or just a lot earlier. i never really had to do that since she did it on her own.
since my daughter is such a poor napper on her own i've been really careful to follow the book's suggestions (1-2 hours of wakefulness b4 nap, watch for signs of drowsiness etc..)
now the book is suggesting more of a "schedule" for 4 month olds to get best nightttime sleep (which i want!!!!) which includes a 7pm bedtime and 7am wakeup. (p.s i don't follow the CIO stuff)

here's the question...i don't work, i like to sleep late. i don't have other kids and we don't have to get up early.
anybody have luck with later bedtimes and later wake-ups for little babes???

[Dmitrizmom]

right now we are just following V's cues... most nights she falls asleep around 10pm, wakes 1-2 times during the night and will sleep until 9am. It works well for us.

Both my other kids fell into the early to bed/early to rise when they were about 6-8 months old.

[dosergirl]

i don't force a bedtime, i just go along with what her natural habits are. so for us, our bedtime process starts at 8pm. we go into the bedroom and have lower lights and quieter sounds. we eat and then just take it easy as a wind down. i would say she i almost always in bed by 10pm.
i also don't read any books about childcare.

[StrongFeather]

I aim for bedtime to be between 6pm and 8pm.. ideally that he is in bed 7pm-7am..

[zenproof]

this also our only child. and also have read (am reading) weisbluth's book.

oban goes to sleep (and is very ready) - between 730 and 8pm every night. there is no way he could go longer than that. he wakes twice in the night (1am and 4am) and is up at 6:30am almost like clockwork. although sometimes i bring him into bed and hold him for an extra hour and he sleeps. lol. i can't do a 6:30am wake up!

[tzs]

yeah, see, ada would absolutely go to bed at 7:30...but instead i've turned it into a mini-naptime (in addition to her 5:30 nap that she really likes.) then down again at 9ish.

[leahmn12]

From what I understand, the most important thing is that they're getting enough sleep, and that sleeping times are somewhat consistent. I wouldn't worry about the fact that you're family's particular sleeping shift is later than most.

[melis79]

William has his last feeding at 8pm and after that we do our bedtime routine of bath, snuggle and rock and then in bed between 9-930. Our other kids had an 730 or 8pm bedtime as babies but the later time works better for us now with our other kids in bed by 730p and DH works nights, so his nights off he has some time to spend with William. William sleeps all night now, and wakes up between 745am-830am. He dropped his nighttime feed on his own about 4 weeks ago once he discovered his fingers and now if/when he wakes we dont even hear a peep as he just sucks on his fingers and falls back to sleep. Obviously not waking from hunger cause he has no problem letting us know if he is ready to eat!
I have had girlfriends that had later bedtimes for their babies because it worked better for their families and ended up with kids that "slept in". I would love a baby that slept till 9 or 10am Mostly because I am preggers again and am constantly wanting to nap. I am taking full advantage of the old adage now "nap when the baby naps". If he is sleeping during the day, I am too!

[Julia24]

Generally somewhere between 6 and 8 pm. She hasn't fallen into a super consistent schedule with that yet. On really rough days, it could be way earlier even. Like yesterday we had her out and about and she only catnapped most of the day. (from 10:45 until 4:15). When we got home, I changed her diaper, swaddled her and fed her and she fell asleep at 4:45 ish, maybe? She slept until 10pm! Then ate and went back down around 11, woke at 5am and then again around 8:30 this morning. We're paying for it though. She's been a hot mess all day. Started fighting a nap around 10am and didn't really settle in (she did sleep 30 minutes) until after ONE! It's been a miserable day.

[newmomroxi]

My son never really had a set routine but he would either catnap all day or take two good naps. I hated the days when he catnapped b/c he tended to be really grumpy come bedtime. He used to be out for the night by 7:30 though.

Now that I'm back to work, he doesn't sleep well during the day so by the time I get home he's exhausted. He falls asleep about 5:30 or 6 then wakes up at 8:30 and thinks its time to play! He's so cute and smiley but I'm exhausted by then. So I just sit quietly and hold him (which he hates, he screams) until he falls asleep again. I'm hoping that I can get him back on some sort of routine but it's not really working. My mom and siblings are staying with us (all 4 of them!) in our already tiny house and I'm almost crazy. But anyway.... my son sleeps about 11 hours at night, only waking up once, and he's usually up by 7:30.

[confustication]

We're nowhere near anything aproximating a sleep schedule yet, and I don't see it happenig for several months with this little guy.

By the time my kids are about a year old though, they reliably are in bed by about 7pm- then up somewhere between 5 am and 7am. I've never thought it terribly healthy to ask kids to sleep past that natural daybreak wake time, so I resign myself to early mornings. I vow revenge when they are teenagers.

[ElliesMomma]

are you cosleeping? my little guy is more than happy to lay in bed with me for as long as i want in the mornings. (my 3 year old, on the other hand, is up at the crack of dawn, so it's not like i get undisturbed time to doze.) but the baby would be more than happy to lounge around in bed, sleep, nurse, sleep, nurse, all day and all night.
ps: i get both kids to bed at the same time; almost always before 8; sometimes we start bedtime baths, etc. routine just after 5 p.m. (although these are "winter hours". summer nights always went later with my first, and i have no doubt they will go later with both kids this year.

[tzs]

well, she forced me to co-sleep in the beginning but i really didn't like it so i finally got her in a crib in our room.
but i do let her stay in bed with me in the morning if a want a little more time. sometimes she just babbles instead of sleeping (she's a big loudmouth sometimes!) but i figure lounging in bed semi-awake is better than getting up.

btw...i'm jealous of all of you with the awesome long nighttime sleepers. ada pulls a 6-8 hour stretch on good nights and i considered myself really lucky.

[confustication]

Originally Posted by tzs

btw...i'm jealous of all of you with the awesome long nighttime sleepers. ada pulls a 6-8 hour stretch on good nights and i considered myself really lucky.

I'd be happy with a two hour stretch! I counted last night- he woke me to nurse/swap sides over 20 times.

[newmomroxi]

Wow, confustication!! You are a trooper.

[cristeen]

Schedule? What's a schedule?

Nothing even approaching a schedule here.

If he goes to sleep before 9, we'll be up at 4 for the day. So if he's looking drowsy around 7 or so, we either get really active, or I get ready for bed knowing that tomorrow's going to be tough.

And days like today make all those "experts" and their "advice" look like total fools. He's been up since 7:30, with no nap longer than 15 minutes. He's been down about 20 right now, and I'm crossing my fingers he makes it to 30 so I can actually eat my lunch in peace (yes, it's almost 3 and I'm just now getting lunch). There's no earthly reason I can come up with why he hasn't taken a nap, I know he's tired, but there it is.

I'm not holding out hope for anything approaching a sleep schedule anytime soon.

[tzs]

i did see something about a 4 month sleep regression somewhere. maybe that's with all the waking/poor napping. i think kellymom has good info about it. ada's been having trouble going down for the night lately and the newest is complete meltdown when passed to her grandparents. i think we have an early case of seperation anxiety. huh.....

[confustication]

I figure we'll all muddle through- by the time they head off to college they'll be sleeping all the time. :P

Also, the sleep regression is NOT my favorite thing.

[b-girl]

He won't fall asleep before 10pm, and doesn't wake until 8/8:30am the earliest. He usually nurses then and either falls right back to sleep or stays awake for a hour and then falls back to sleep typically until around 11/11:30ish.