It was not supposed to be a nap. It was 11:00. He'd already HAD two naps, his normal. Come midnight, he's awake. I've already spent an hour nursing, repeatedly laying him back down (from sitting/all 4s) offering a binky, playing soothing music.. now dh is taking a turn. I REFUSE to let him out of bed to play this late. Had it been 11 and he showed no sign of being tired I might have let him up to play his energy out and dealt with the 2:00am bedtime. But when he goes to bed at 11 and wakes at midnight.. LINE DRAWN! No leaving the horizontal position or the bed. PERIOD! I managed to nurse him back to sleep for like, eh, 2 minutes. I sat up, sat for a minute making sure it was safe to leave aaaand,... he's up. He is teething, but he's not acting bothered by it at all, so I don't know if thats necessarily to blame.
He's always had a very inflexible sleep pattern. 2 naps. If we get busy and are out and about and he only gets one, he will not just go to bed early. I might try to put him to bed early, but he'll just wake up and then be awake for another 3 hours no matter what I do. So I learned to be very protective of his naps and make darn sure he gets them. The last few days though, he's needed nap 1 a little earlier than normal. Also woke earlier in the morning, but not by a lot (like, 9:30 instead of 10:30-11) which of course translates to earlier nap #2. and you'd THINK that would mean going to bed earlier at night, but its like he thinks he needs to squeeze in another nap.. which means he needs another nice long awake cycle. Bedtime has been getting later and later. I desperately want earlier bedtimes. How the heck do you change a baby's sleep schedule? If waking earlier in the morning and taking earlier naps isn't the answer to an earlier bedtime, then what the hell is?
fwiw, I see this exact same problem in myself. My body doesn't like to go to sleep before like, 1am. Even if I'm really, really tired and go to bed earlier, I'm only dooming myself to wake several times in the night and not be able to fall asleep. Last time I went to bed early, I woke 2-3x for at least an hour each.
He's always had a very inflexible sleep pattern. 2 naps. If we get busy and are out and about and he only gets one, he will not just go to bed early. I might try to put him to bed early, but he'll just wake up and then be awake for another 3 hours no matter what I do. So I learned to be very protective of his naps and make darn sure he gets them. The last few days though, he's needed nap 1 a little earlier than normal. Also woke earlier in the morning, but not by a lot (like, 9:30 instead of 10:30-11) which of course translates to earlier nap #2. and you'd THINK that would mean going to bed earlier at night, but its like he thinks he needs to squeeze in another nap.. which means he needs another nice long awake cycle. Bedtime has been getting later and later. I desperately want earlier bedtimes. How the heck do you change a baby's sleep schedule? If waking earlier in the morning and taking earlier naps isn't the answer to an earlier bedtime, then what the hell is?
fwiw, I see this exact same problem in myself. My body doesn't like to go to sleep before like, 1am. Even if I'm really, really tired and go to bed earlier, I'm only dooming myself to wake several times in the night and not be able to fall asleep. Last time I went to bed early, I woke 2-3x for at least an hour each.
. The doctor said that 8pm nap should be his bedtime, but the 2am-4am play times that result are horrible. I felt bad because like you, I refuse to take him out of the bed, but then when he cries so much I give in. With a 10:30 bedtime last night, it was just an our of play in the bed 5:20-6:20. If I let him stay up till midnight he won't wake up to play. But, I am not a midnight person. I'm an early to bed girl. 9pm is great for me, 10 is ok, 11pm is too late and anything past 12 pre-baby did not exist to me.
