What are the downsides to a late bedtime?

[ElleDubloo]

We have a 2.5 month DD (only child for now) who doesn't have a set bedtime. We're thinking of getting a routine started now. I know most babies sleep 7 pm to 7 am, or thereabouts, but I'm wondering whether it would be OK to let her sleep 10 pm to 10 am instead?

Upsides: DH and I both work long hours. When I go back to work, I'll get home after 6 pm. DH gets home 7 pm on a good day, after midnight on a bad day. It breaks my heart to think that DD will be asleep by the time we get home, and only just waking up when we have to go to work again. If she sleeps at 10 pm, we'll be able to have some family time in the evenings. And she can continue sleeping when we go to work.

Downsides: She'll miss a few hours of daylight in the mornings. Also, the routine will need some re-adjustment when she's old enough to go to school.

What do you think? Will this bedtime mess up my child?

How will it work though if she's waking at 10am when you go to work again?

I would rethink your working hours to be honest. But too early to think of that now.

I know most babies sleep 7 pm to 7 am

LOL

I can't get past this.
I must have gone very wrong with my 3 then - none of them ever slept those hours

Most kids are pretty sure when they want to wake up for the day and bedtimes tend to then fit in around that.
My ds ALWAYS wakes between 6:45 and 7:15am so can't stay up later than 7:30 in the evening. If we kept him up late he'd still wake at 7am and then just be grumpy all day.

Both mine did 7-7 from around six months, it can happen.

However they would actually do the 7am wake up whatever time we put them to bed - be it 7pm, 10pm 11pm, 3am in the morning. And be grumpy all day due to over tiredness.

There's something about bleddy 7am for babies IMHO

Haven't read the full thread but our 5 month old for the last 2 months has slept 10-10... Last 2 weeks we changed it to 8-8, just by waking him up at 8 and feeding by schedule, and it's worked. It may all go its up at a later date but currently it works. So you can train some babies, and I'm not lying.
We moved his sleep time as me and DH just wasn't getting any baby free time to chat or watch a film etc.
Otherwise I would have kept it as I like the lay ins! So go for it op, whatever suits you.

Just to echo that DS also set his own sleep routine. He is only 17m and asks for a bath at about 6:15pm every day and is in bed by 7. He usually sleeps till 7am but just recently he has decided that 5am is a much more reasonable time to get up. No amount of adjusting bedtime seems to change that so I'm just crossing my fingers that it's a phase!

Mine did 7-7 from three months in their own cots in their own rooms. That is how I kept my sanity.

OP ignore the nay sayers the majority of 6 month olds (70%) do sleep through. That's the data from the. Avon study of thousands of children. Many families especially when the parents work in catering have this pattern

Studies vary on the figures. Somewhere upwards of half on most studies. But even those babies who sleep 12 hours may well not be totally flexible on which 12 hours. People are just trying to point out to the OP that it might not be totally up to her.

Which is not an unreasonable or 'nay sayer' point to make.

Also depends on how 'sleep through' is defined. Some say 5hrs is sleeping through but that's not a full nights sleep in my book!

It is a fact the majority of 6 months olds have a period of consolidated sleep. Which you would never guess from the posts on here. The OP has every chance of getting her 2.5m old sleeping this way in the next 3-4 months.

I disagree. She might have a good chance of getting her sleeping 12 hours. That isn't the same as being able to pick any 12 hours that suit. Although admittedly, even with the world's strongest blackout blinds, that is easier in winter than summer.

My 5 month old does have a period of sleep 7-7 or 8-7 in his cot in which he sleeps soundly waking only to feed, and a definate 'wake up' where he is ready for the day. I imagine when most posters are saying babies sleep 7-7 they mean this, rather than saying they do 7-7 with no wakeups. I can say my son sleeps 7-7 because he is in his cot, asleep with minimal interaction when he wakes up to feed at night, rather than around 7am when he wakes and it's all go, cooing, chatting etc.

I mean in terms of this thread and bedtime/wakeup, I don't go round saying to people he sleeps 7-7 like he sleeps through! He's never slept more than 8 hors on the trot!

No sorry Reding I meant mine did 7-7 with no wake ups at all from six months..

Fingers crossed that will be us soon then Puppy!

It's nice to be able to watch tv - if she didn't go to bed until 10, when would you watch Game of Thrones?!

Also, you getting up for work would prob disturb her so she might not get 12h decent sleep.

DD is a nightmare at bedtime at the moment, she hasn't gone to sleep before 10 this week. She is still waking up 7.30/8am and as a result is horribly overtired.

Maybe 8.30ish would be a good compromise to aim for so you get some time but not so difficult to adjust if necessary?

We did 10 to 8/9/10 as we couldn't cope with a child getting up at 6am. We are not morning people. Fortunately neither is dd :)

We have always used baby sitters from nursery and paid well on the basis they are doing full on child care as opposed to relaxing and watching telly. We lose out on couple time, but are happy with the choice we are making
There are plenty of baby / toddler groups in the afternoons!

Thought I'd just chip in again on the 7-7 uninterrupted thing - ds dropped his final night bf at 7mo and even then I had only been out of bed for ten mins for ages - and since then, barring illness, we get 7-6/7am completely undisturbed. Who knows what he'll be doing in three months time tho, I don't take it for granted we'll always have this!