At what age did your LO start going to bed early?

[Jokat]

Hi all, I'm just wondering when you first managed to get your dc to go to sleep at around 7 or 8 pm. My dd2 is 16 weeks now and not settling before somewhere between 11 pm and midnight while having a bottle. I have tried a few times to settle her around 9 or 9:30 but even if she drops off over her milk, she'll just wake again a short while after. It's no big deal, but I'm looking forward to having the evenings back to ourselves and would like to hear about your experiences. Can't for the life of me remember how long it took dd1 to go down early!

My DCs tended to go to bed at about 9:00 for the first year and after turning 1 they went down at about 7:00.

DD - bath at 7pm, bottle staright after, then swaddled tightly, dummy in, upstairs in moses basket from 6 weeks.

DS - bottle at 6pm, bath, wind down time, swaddled tightly, dummy in, upstairs in moses basket from 6 weeks. Usually upstairs about 7.30pm.

With dd she would drop off to sleep very quickly, with ds i sit with him until he falls asleep as sometimes he needs a cuddle etc - can take up to 30 mins - he is currently 9 weeks old.
We may be very lucky, but neither dc wakes after they are asleep upstairs. Dreamfeed at 10/11pm.

With ds it has taken a few weeks to get him to sleep early, but he is goign to sleep closer to 7.30 all the time. Do you have a bedtime routine? I found that doing the same things every night like bottle, bath, story etc and swaddling really made my babies know it was bedtime.

I started a nighttime routine pretty early: bath 6pm then bottle, swaddle and bed. It worked consistently from about 3mo when she started sleeping through with a dreamfeed.

For me the swaddle really helped (although I used to unwrap her and put in grobag after dreamfeed)!

Night time routine like bt1978 from the very beginning - my Mum said it was the one routine that was really important (and also involved a glass of wine for me and DH!).

Both of them slept brilliantly (obviously the odd exception) from the very beginning - sleeping through from about 10/12wks.

my three were (and in the case of 2 yo dd still is) shocking sleepers, BUT, with all of them from pretty much day 1 i put them to bed in their cots at 7pm and they would all go to sleep, which meant i always had about 2 hours to eat my own supper, chat to dh etc. getting them to stay asleep after that first burst, now that's a separate issue, and ds1 co slept til he was 5, but for me it really helped my sanity having that one and only routine in place.

DD1 about 3 or 4 months, DD2 about 6 weeks.

Still waiting here, 1 in reception and one nearly 3yo. I can put them to bed at 7, still be putting them back to bed at 9, or I can put them to bed at 8.45 and save myself 20 trips upstairs.

Hope hope hope to get to a better bedtime soon, I hate having no quiet time left of an evening - by the time I have washed up/made packed lunches for tomorrow it is practically bedtime. But, they don't get me up at 5.30am.

Jokat, I've been wondering the same thing. My ds (4 mths) sleeps well, from about 11pm to 9am, sometimes waking once or twice for a feed. We have a basic bedtime routine which we started early on but no matter how I try to bring it forward, he won't sleep before 11pm.

I'm pretty happy with the lie-in but it seems a lot of babies go to sleep at 6 or 7 at this age. Having the evening to myself would be lovely!