How do I turn the last nap into bedtime?

[MolliciousIntent]

DD2 is nearly 5m and at the moment has her final nap of the day around 7pm. This is generally a short one, half an hour tops, and then she's awake for about an hour-90min before she finally goes down properly for the night, in the cot generally at about 10.30.

I would kill for 7pm to be actually bedtime, obviously she'd still need to be down with us in the Moses basket but I really, really miss having a meal with my husband with no baby involved. How do I turn that final nap into bedtime?

Id just try doing your bedtime routine around 7pm instead and see how you get on. If they wake after an hour, try feeding back to sleep as you would do in the night if they wake. Feeding to sleep is normal, there's absolutely no need to change this.

Ok we're back in the cot. Please god no rolling.

😂 Good luck OP!

Shiiiiit - wriggling on the monitor, pretty much stopped my heart. Just sitting staring at it - DH talked me into leaving her upstairs for an hour or so and I am obsessively attached to the camera.

Well she hasn't stayed asleep but it's been bedtime, not a nap, so that's a good start. Thank you all for your help.

Well, bedtime was at 7 last night so that's a victory, but she then woke every hour all night. Damn the heat.

Sorry to hear that OP! Did she want to feed each time?

It's definitely a start though! X

I think at about 5 months my ds was on 3 naps a day. Up for the day at 7am. Nap at about 9 til 10.30. Then 12 til 1.30 then a 30 min catnap about 4pm. Then bath at 6.30 and bed at 7.

I think he still woke up for a bottle in the night at 5m but not much later than 6m.

I used huckleberry to get in a good routine and have just adjusted those wake windows accordingly as he's got older.

My baby is down no later than 7.30 every night. She’s 5.5 months….

It's the only thing that soothes the savage beast unfortunately!

Ours is 5 months and is generally asleep 6:30-7:30 and then either sleeps through until 5am, or does 6:30 with a wake-up at 3/4.

Honestly though, I think this is because we were ok with putting him upstairs at bedtime with a baby monitor from about 3.5 months. I realise that’s not the official guidance, but I don’t think we would have had any chance of him staying asleep if he was down with us still. Plus he’d outgrown the Moses basket.

Update - this week we've had pretty good luck with no daytime sleep after 4.30 and "bedtime" at 7pm (in terms of her actually being down for the night, not in terms of her sleeping through). It just goes to show how quickly they change at this age, because I tried the exact same thing the week before and was shit out of luck! Babies, man, who'd have em.

This is exactly the same as us!