7 1/2 month old and Bedtime/Naps? Please help!

[PoetryLover]

How important is a regular, early bedtime for a 7 1/2 month old?

How do you go about instituting a bedtime at this age?

We cosleep and usually go to bed sometime between 9 & 10. DS waits until that time and goes to sleep when we do, but lately he's been very fussy and fighting sleep. A while back, we discussed giving him an earlier bedtime, like 7 or 8.

He's been going to sleep with us between 9 & 10 and waking up between 6:30 and 7:30, sometimes earlier. He's a very light sleeper. He naps twice during the day (on a good day), once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Some days he doesn't nap at all. Also, the duration of his naps are all over the place, anywhere from 10 minutes to nearly 3 hours. One day he took a 3 hour nap in the morning, followed by a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Yesterday he took a 15 minute nap and later a 10 minute nap. His sleep is very interrupted, as well. He nurses several times a night. Of course, he doesn't fully wake to nurse, as we cosleep.

At this point, I can tell DS is consistently tired and I worry about him. DH is also very tired, due to Ds's restlessness at night time. I'm TIRED after weeks of this and it's really affecting me. What can I do to create a better sleep environment for all of us?

ETA: I've heard sleep begets sleep, and I've experienced an easier time with DS going down when he gets good solid naps and such.

[Nicole730]

You can definitely try and get him to sleep earlier than when you go to bed. We have a small house and I felt comfortable leaving DS in our bed at that age, he didn't move a lot in his sleep. So around 7 I would lay down with him and nurse him to sleep - and then sneak out when he was asleep. If he woke up before I was ready for bed, I would just nurse him asleep again. Or some nights, just sit in bed - reading, tv, computer - then each time he would stir, just put my hand on his chest to help him drift back off. Most often he needed nursing to go back to sleep though.

You might want to try naps sooner than you think he needs them. Two hours after morning wake up is a good rule. Some kids even need it sooner. After I read a book about sleep, I started getting DS to sleep earlier than ever before and he got more and more sleep and slept easier, so I am a believer in that.

ETA: DD is 6.5 months. She goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps until just about 7am. She naps twice a day for 1.5-2.5 hours each or naps 3 times a day for 30min-1.5 hours.

[julie80]

I noticed that with my son, the more tired he gets the worse his sleep get too. You would think that if he was tired he would just go to sleep but it doesn't work that way. I noticed this because on days when he naps well, he sleeps longer and better at night.

Another thing I also noticed was that on mornings when we have to get up early (earlier than he would wake up on his own) he would throw temper tantrums like crazy. So I've tried to make sure he sleeps as long as he can and wakes up on his own and this has helped tremendously.

[PoetryLover]

Thanks for the commiseration and advice.

I tried getting him to sleep between 7-8 last night, but he just wasn't having it. I tried to nurse him down and when that didn't work, I tried bouncing him on my knee (which often works, but didn't last night). Also, he was resistant to napping yesterday morning and I bounced him to sleep. He slept for a couple of hours then.

Maybe I'll try to put him down every night around 7, creating a routine. Bath time, infant massage, story time, nursing down...

[Knitting Mama]

You might have already tried this, but does side-lying nursing help? If you went and laid down with him at 7-8 and side nursed him, do you think he'd go to sleep?

I, too, have noticed that when my 5 month old's naps are crap, so is her night sleeping.

[PoetryLover]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama

You might have already tried this, but does side-lying nursing help? If you went and laid down with him at 7-8 and side nursed him, do you think he'd go to sleep?

I, too, have noticed that when my 5 month old's naps are crap, so is her night sleeping.

Yes, that's exactly how I try to nurse him down. I find that sometimes he wants his dad on the other side while I nurse him. He likes to reach back and touch his dad, so maybe I'll try that at his new 7ish bedtime. I just thought of that! That's how we all fall asleep at night, so why not just do it earlier for just DS to fall asleep?

[newmamalizzy]

What if you try a gradual "earlification" of bedtime instead of making the shift all at once? For the record, my 5 month old just sort of demanded an earlier bedtime about a month ago, and it's been much, much better for all of us. We start her routine at 6:30 and she's almost always contentedly asleep by 7:30. She sleeps until 6:30 or 7 with 1 or 2 wakeups. Like yours, she's a bad napper. A REALLY bad napper. I feel like this early, consistent bedtime really helps to make up for the inconsistencies in her napping.