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Getting DS to sleep earlier. . .

451 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  LadyCatherine185
our family cosleeps. i enjoy it, and i know that DS is particularly attached to it.

usually, we all go to bed between 9 and 9:30. i have no problem with DS staying up this late, but i have a preference for him to go to bed earlier.

i want to know how you get children down earlier if you cosleep--before you go to bed that is.

DS nurses down. i think cosleeping is a second to nursing for him. LOL

I find it hard to get an evening routine going (i'm working on that), and also if i put DS down without us, he typically wakes in about 45 minutes and may not go down for a long while after (say, 10:30 or 11--well past my own bed time).

I'm just wondering what you all do.
thanks!
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My DS wakes 45 minutes into his nighttime sleep too. Hmmm. Isn't that interesting? Some nights he falls back to sleep on his own; sometimes he needs my intervention. We cosleep, too, so I'm usually right there.

DS goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 pm, but we're on the road in the morning by 6 am - our day starts early. I wonder if you got DS up earlier, that over time, he'd gradually want to go to sleep earlier. It's hard, I know. My sister's kids stay up late, because they don't all get home from work/daycare until about 5:30 in the evening (whereas, we're all home by 4:00). After dinner, clean up, baths, a little relaxation, three hours have passed. She sticks to a late bedtime, because otherwise she'd have so little time with them.

Our challenge, despite DS's early bed time is allowing me to get out of bed and go spend time with DH or clean or whatever. If - I mean, WHEN - DS wakes up after that 45 minute mark, and I have to run upstairs to settle him back to sleep, it takes a lot longer than if I'm right there next to him. So... unless I have urgent things to do downstairs, (sigh) I crawl in bed at 7:00 too, and do work on the laptop or DH and I watch a movie on the laptop or read. I long for the freedom to just go sit in another room and do my own thing - but it's gotten so that if I do, I have a hard time relaxing. I'm kinda always on edge, ready to bolt if DS wakes up. He's AP-trained me well.


Good luck with your transition. You might also have luck making the change now, when evenings are still dark. Just some thoughts...
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A light awakening is very typical after 45 minutes. I used to watch the clock and hang around outside the door at 45 minutes after I put DD down to sleep--if I was able to get to her fairly quickly when she woke and either rub her back or nurse her, she would go back into a deep sleep.
Is it always 45 minutes? So you could put him down at 8:10-8:50 depending on when you're planning to get to bed and then get a breast back into him before he stirs??
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And I usually go to bed a lot later so I tend to treat the 8-10 sleep as a nap, but have a couple of times, had success with nursing her back down after taking her for a pee-while-nursing break.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan View Post
And I usually go to bed a lot later so I tend to treat the 8-10 sleep as a nap, but have a couple of times, had success with nursing her back down after taking her for a pee-while-nursing break.
Hilarious.
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DS usually goes to bed around 7, and I join him at 10. DH usually is the one to put him to bed, and when he wakes up I just go in and lay with him and nurse him back to sleep when he wakes up.
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