What time should my 18mth old be put to bed?

[PollyPecker]

At the moment we put our 18mth old to bed at 7pm religiously every night. We don't suffer from any tantrums and he settles himself off to sleep very well. He does tend to wake early though and we're wondering if we put him down to early? Any suggestions?

Sounds normal to me. DD (22 months) goes to bed at 7pm and wakes at some point between 6am and 7am. If you have a routine that works for him and he settles himself well I would be reluctant to change it! It gives you some adult time in the evening too.

if it ain't broke, don't fix it! dd doesn't wake any later if she goes to bed later.

My 2.2 year old DD is generally in bed at around 7pm too. She also wakes early but we have tried a later bedtime and it didn't work for us, it just seems to be her natural pattern to feel sleepy between 6 and 7.30pm and up at 5-5.30pm. Has he always woken early or is it new?

My dd2 (18 months) goes to bed at 7.30pm....she wakes about 7am...

I think that at that age a fairly regular bedtime is a great thing, but it doesn't very much matter what time it is if the child can sleep in as long as they like in the morning. So if it suits you to delay bedtime until 8pm, 9pm or whatever suits you then go ahead. You'll need to bring it back to an earlier time before he starts school - a reception class child should be in bed by about 7pm imo.

My DD (17 months) was like your DS just a couple of months ago. We dropped down to one short nap during the day and now make sure she's had lots of exercise during the day. She goes down around 7pm and will now sleep well past 7am.

My Ds 17months also has 7pm bedtime. He started waking earlier and earlier so we cut his day time nap down to 1hr from 1.5hrs. He also is allowed no sleep in the afternoon. He is now back to waking between 6.30 and 7.00 again. So it seems to have done the trick.

Agree with 40plus The key is a regular bedtime and corresponding rising time that suits you and your family. Dd went to bed at 9 at that age cos it suited us and slept in till 8.30/9.

my ds used to go down at that time and wake at 5 i tried putting him to bed later he woke at 4 so left it as it was he did sleep till 6 once but it was fune we had evening to ourself and didnt really mind early morning as we had our quality time night times better for us

Thanks for the advice everyone, in answer to some of the questions, he sleeps for 2-2.5hours during the day so do you think weshould cut this down and this may make him sleep later?

I wouldn't. At this age DS had two to two and a half hours in the day, and we aimed for 12 hrs at night though I think in practice it was nearer 11.

I think it sounds fine what your ds is doing; utterly brilliant, actually! Even settling himself with out a fuss. I wouldn't be looking to change anything at all if I were you; I know early wake ups are hard though...but if the rest is so good.....

At about that age we started keeping dd up slightly later to eat with us at around 7pm (then bed by 8). She now has two "teas" a light meal at 4.30/5ish (e.g sandwich/beans on toast etc) then proper tea with us (whatever we are eating) then a cup of milk with a story then brush teeth then bed. Her waking time is variable (6.30 to 8) but later on average than it was. She is eating slightly more overall which is good as she has a tiny appetite. We still have a regular routine which I think is important. (She sleeps for about 1 to 1.5 hrs after her lunch)

When you say he wakes early - how early?

Mine were doing approx 7.30-7 at that age with a couple of hours nap in the daytime.

Ahh just recognised you from the other thread. He's waking around 2am. As I said on the other thread I don't think there's that much you can do, really.
I'd make the most of the time from 7pm - 2am ish Either early night in preparation for the early morning wake-up or just time to yourself.
What you don't want is to move the bedtime later and still have a 2am waking baby.

Juule - he wakes at any time from 5am and somethimes for about 2 hours from 2-4am (See my other thread. From the responses seems that we'll probably keep his bedtime as it is and maybe just shorten daytime sleep.

Thanks

My DD was/is an early riser. The only thing that makes a difference is the sleep during the day. Now I try and limit her to 1 hour and she is in bed by 7:30pm, and usually wakes about 6:30am. I am happy with this as 11 hours is a long time !! Good luck.

Also, what do you prefer, en evening to yourself or a lie-in the morning ? I prefer the time I have in the evening with DP.