What time does your 5/6 month old go to bed?

[hanni]

My DS doesn't go to bed until about 10/11 pm as he just won't settle any earlier. Recently he's been a really fussy sleeper and I'm wondering if it's because he goes to bed too late?

Tonight as soon as he started showing signs of being tired I bathed him and put him to bed which ment he went down for 7pm rather than just having a nap around that time.

Whats your babies bedtime routine like?

 

[Kirsty3051]

I went back to work 5 months pp so we felt like we had to be pretty strict with his routine early on. He used to be bathed at 6:30, bfed, and then put down for 7. He's 8 months old now and sits down to dinner with us at 6, has a bath at 7, breastfeeds and then goes down for half 7. 9/10, he'll sleep straight through to 7am, which is when I wake him up for the day.

 

[MrsVenn]

DS has dinner at 5pm, bath at 6pm, scratchsleeves and sleeping bag on (was swaddled) and fed to sleep or drowsiness. Wind and then put down. Have been doing this since he was quite little and instead of dinner at 5, he'd have milk at 4 when younger.

DD never went to bed earlier than 10pm until she was about 3. She simply wasn't tired and still got up at 7:30 every day.

I got not one but TWO rubbish sleepers, hehe.

 

[hanni]

So after he went down wonderfully at 7 he woke back up at about 8.45 and now he's having a party. Suppose it was a lot to expect such a dramatic change so suddenly. I feel like it's going to be a long night!

 

[Kirsty3051]

Right there with you tonight every time I mention how well he sleeps, he has an active night. It's like they know.

 

[MindUtopia]

At that age, it was 6:30-7pm. We wore her in a wrap every evening until she was 4 months, so she was used to sleeping at that time, so the transition to sleeping on her own at the same time was an easy one. If he's already having a nap at that time, it sounds like he's obviously tired, so why not just put him to bed? That doesn't mean he won't still wake for a feed at 10-11pm (mine did until around that age, then again at 1am, and again at 4am), but it helped that she went to bed earlier. I have a friend who used to keep her LO up until 10 or 11pm because her husband worked evenings and she hated to be by herself. Her daughter is now 2.5 and she won't go to bed until then and it's a real battle because now she wants time to herself in the evenings but can't get it. They do need about 12 hours of sleep a night at that age, so if he's seeming tired early, I'd put him to be early.

 

[hanni]

At that age, it was 6:30-7pm. We wore her in a wrap every evening until she was 4 months, so she was used to sleeping at that time, so the transition to sleeping on her own at the same time was an easy one. If he's already having a nap at that time, it sounds like he's obviously tired, so why not just put him to bed? That doesn't mean he won't still wake for a feed at 10-11pm (mine did until around that age, then again at 1am, and again at 4am), but it helped that she went to bed earlier. I have a friend who used to keep her LO up until 10 or 11pm because her husband worked evenings and she hated to be by herself. Her daughter is now 2.5 and she won't go to bed until then and it's a real battle because now she wants time to herself in the evenings but can't get it. They do need about 12 hours of sleep a night at that age, so if he's seeming tired early, I'd put him to be early.

This was my plan, I tried this last night and it was horrendous. He woke up again about 8.45 and was up for hours. Then when he finally fell asleep he woke ip constantly. Going to try it again tonight and hopefully he'll get used to it. He's full of cold and teething atm so it's probably not the best time to make changes but we'll see how things go anyway.

 

[hanni]

We slept at my mums at the weekend, we just shared the king sized bed since it was just me and him.

He slept from 10 -7 without a peep, had a bottle and went back to sleep until 9.30!! Amazing! I dunno if it was because he was right next to me. I always used to bring him into bed with be from about 5am before we moved. Maybe that's why he's been so unsettled recently? Not used to sleeping on his own?

Do I persist on him sleeping on his own to get him used to it or let him sleep next to me so we all sleep better. Dilemma!

Edit:
I've stopped co sleeping since we moved because we've gone from a king sized bed with a hard mattress to a double bed with a really soft memory foam mattress so I just don't feel like it's safe anymore when my OH is in it too.