Bedtime - urgent advice needed!

[newmum234]

DS (5.5 months) has had naps at 9am, 12pm and 3pm today (waking up at 4pm). I was hoping to keep him up after that to put him to bed for the night at 7pm.

However, I've just taken him for a walk in his pram and he fell asleep at 6pm for 20 minutes.

Does this mean I now have to delay his bedtime?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I would delay bedtime yes.

Yep I'd delay. Maybe do a walk for the 3pm nap?

Thanks. Should I delay for 2.5 hours since he woke - so put him to bed at about 8.50pm?

Id just wait til he starts looking tired.

DS now in floods of tears for no apparent reason I'm so confused what to do

Nappy, bath, boob/bottle, bed. And then a big glass of wine or a steaming cuppa for you - you're doing an excellent job.

First - take a deep breath. You won't ruin him if he has a muddled night.

Some days they are more tired than others. It could be anything making him cry.

Will he just sit with you while you watch telly Then put him to sleep later on.

I would try and do bedtime now but bail pretty quickly if he's not having any of it and try again in half an hour or so. He's probably all confused bless him!

Put him to bed if he’s tired ? Is he teething ?

I wouldn't have delayed, just carried on with bedtime as usual.

He's confused, I'm confused... this is such a mess!

My little girl stated having a short nap in the car on the way home from work for 20 minutes (I've started bringing her with me to work). I found that it didn't really make a difference to her bedtime - she is still tired around her usual time. If I tried to make it later then she would be crazy mad.

Don't worry if you have an off night - they happen! Every once in a while she'll over-shoot her bedtime and be up still screaming at 9pm!
If he's still upset could be teething or generally poorly feeling?

I’d just give him his milk, change him and get him settled and in bed now.

My own ds I used to have to poke him awake if he went to sleep after 4pm or he would have me up all night. If he did have a later nap on the rare occasion like you said if we went out and he fell asleep, I would put him to bed an hour or 2 later.

There’s no right or wrong way to do it

You have to do the "you" test. If you had a little nap before bed, would you still go to bed as normal? Probably, yes. Don't worry. Sure he will be sound asleep in no time.

OP don't worry - one bad night won't do any harm. You are doing a fab job with his routine. With both of mine, a late nap meant a total reset of the clock, even it was only 15 minutes! I would just keep him up a little bit later than usual, then do a slow bedtime routine. Get him up at normal time tomorrow. He may struggle to settle into a deep sleep tonight, but tomorrow is a new day.

Thanks all. I ended up taking him upstairs to bed at about 8.10pm, since he was really upset and there didn't seem to be an end in sight or any reason why. I think he might have just been confused?! There were quite a lot of tears but he finally fell asleep at 8.30pm.

Next time I will time his walk earlier so this isn't an issue!