when do you 'move up' bedtime?

[jerabelle]

hoping for some help ..

DS just turned 7 m/o on monday and seem likes EVERYTHING as far as his sleep schedule changed in an instance.

after our bedtime routine, he'd go down no problem, and we'd see him about 11 hours later the next morning.  now, not so much ....

cries for 1-2 hours when you lay him down, and there is no comforting him.  wakes once in middle of night and also a MUCH earlier riser than he used to be. 

usually bath about 8 and into crib about 8:30pm.  does it sound like i'm missing the 'golden window' to put him down at night?  he's not fussy or anything in the evening and nothing else has changed, so maybe i'm not catching his signals if he is tired earlier?? 

any advice from fellow mommas who have experienced something like this before?

[tzs]

does he still take a 3rd nap? could he be dropping it?

we moved dd's bedtime at around 4 months but it was more like from 10/11 to 8ish, but she did it naturally...couldn't stay up any later. i only moved it to 7 when i started working. 8 or 8:30 was actually working great for us as she would sleep until 8 or 9 am. 

[PrincessWinnie]

He may very well be ready for an earlier bedtime. like 7 pm. You might want to try moving up his bedtime in 15 minute increments until you find the "magic" time. Some babies are ready for bed as early as 6.

[Knitting Mama]

Sadly, it takes some kids a long time to get into a regular sleep schedule, if ever. Currently my 10.5 month old doesn't go down at any set time. It's based on when she woke up from her last nap. It might be at 7:30, it might be at 10:30 or 11.

[SeattleRain]

I'm a huge believer in the early bedtime for babies this age. According to Dr. Weissbluth, a sleep expert, if you're experiencing a good deal of crying at bedtme, you should try an earlier bedtime. His hypothesis is that if the timing is right for sleep, a baby will go somewhat willingly, with maybe 10-15 minutes of "tension release" crying. Too early or too late and you could end up with a baby who is fighting sleep and crying a lot. 1-2 hours of crying seems to me to be a lot of crying. Daniel is 7.5 months and he goes to bed between 6:30pm-7:30pm and typically wakes up at 6:30am-7:00am in the morning. He goes to bed very easily. He cries in arms for about 5-10 minutes and then just drifts off to sleep.

When Daniel took 3 naps, he went to bed closer to 8pm-8:30pm, but at around 4 months old, that nap started tripping us up. By about 5-6 months we figured out that if we cut out that third nap, we could put him to bed earlier and he'd sleep better and wake less at night. Now he sleeps about 12 hours and takes two, 1-2 hour naps during the day.

[Hannah32]

My boy has HAD it by 6 pm or so. Sometimes a bit later, but definitely not past 8 or so. Of course, he's become the master of the half hour useless nap lately, so that's why he's HAD it by then. 

Early bedtimes in general are a  good idea though. I firmly believe that.