What time should bedtime be?

[FearnRJ]

Our daughter is now 3 months old she acts more like 4 months, she's been sleeping through the night since she was 9 weeks old she has 6 feeds a day at 7oz bottles. She normally has her last feed around 10pm-10.30pm but normally only has 3oz then she goes to bed she can sleep until 8am the following morning. She doesn't have long naps during the day so come tea time she's over tired and grumpy. My question is would we be better putting her to bed around 8.30pm after her feed? What does everyone else do as this age? She normally falls to sleep on us after her feed but then wakes up grumpy but maybe putting her to bed would be better as she sleeps better in her crib. Any advice would be much appreciated x

I'd recommend Huckleberry. You pop in the times LO wakes up and naps etc and it suggests nap times and bed time. I've used it since DS was 2 months old and he's in a really good routine.

@shutupsteph thank you! I'll have a look into it x

At that age I would do bedtime with the last feed I think.

Yep, at 12 weeks both of mine fell into a day pattern resulting in 4/5pm bottle, play, bath, 7pm bottle and bed in Moses basket. Sometimes a night feed, sometimes not.

I think u have it pretty gd just now. That 3oz may be what keeps her asleep till 8am.

I didn't know whether putting her to bed at half 8 and then just topping her up at half 10 would help cause between half 8 and half 10 she has around 15 minutes sleep and then she's awake again but she's irritable and fighting sleep but I know in her crib she would sleep as she does through the day when she has naps if we are in x

It doesn't hurt to put her down in her cot.

I'd personally keep her with you though. Both of mine were notoriously fussy in the evenings around this age. They would whinge until 9/10 have a feed, then fall asleep for the night! We tried an earlier bedtime with eldest, but it just ended in trying to settle a whinging baby upstairs instead of downstairs. With youngest, we just kept him downstairs with us because we didn't want him disturbing his brother.

@shutupsteph that apps looks really good! I downloaded it last night I've started using it for sleep and feeding. I like how you can see everything you've logged on one page. Does it come up as a notification when she's due a nap?

Remember until 6 months old all sleep should be with an adult in the room.

@Lockdownseperation that's not what I asked but thanks for your input!

@FearnRJ Yes it does send a notification! you can choose how long before the nap you get notified. I really believe the app is the reason my DS is in such a good routine so hopefully it does the trick for you x

@shutupsteph thank you. Yes I realised after I'd sent the last message about the notification. Fingers crossed it works for us. Thanks for the advice x

I think just see what works for you. Until 3-4 months, mine always just slept on us downstairs and then we went to bed around 10pm. But after a point, they are happier to be put down in the evening and you want your evenings back a little bit to be able to sort out the house or make a nice meal or return some emails without doing it with a baby in tow like you do all day. Around that point, we started to put them to bed before us (yes, upstairs, I've co-slept with all of mine, but I'm happy for them to sleep for a couple hours in the evening without me). That worked well and it just naturally happened when staying up later didn't work anymore.

@mindutopia thank you. I'll see how we go on then over the next few weeks x