How to move a 3 month old's bedtime earlier gently

[TheQuirkyPanda]

Hi! I’m looking for some advice on sleep for my 3 month old baby boy. I’m terrified of jinxing myself here, but he’s an amazing sleeper. He’s started sleeping for a solid 11-12 hours of a nighttime but we tend to go up to bed at around 11pm and he’s therefore asleep until 10/11am the next morning. I’d like to move his bedtime a bit earlier, say 9pm after we’ve got our toddler down for the night but how do I go about it? I don’t want to ruin a good thing! I thought I could just try putting him down 15 minutes earlier for a few days and then gradually increasing that to 30 mins etc so that it’s not a massive jump. Does that sound sensible? Any advice massively appreciated! My daughter was an awful sleeper until about a year old so this is foreign territory for me! 😬

Honestly he’s about to hit the 4 month sleep regression anyway so I wouldn’t try to change anything right now - go through the regression first and then assess where you are!

Id just start putting him to bed at 9pm. Don’t overthink it. These are the golden weeks for sleep. It’s very unlikely this 11-12 hours of sleep is going to stick around. Better to get yourself to bed earlier to you have as much sleep as possible for the months ahead.

Yeah I wouldn’t change anything as sleep notoriously goes haywire at 4 months. Give it a month or two, but then yes, what you suggest is sensible; move bedtime a little earlier each day - and youll also need to wake earlier in the morning so he is ready for the earlier bedtime. Appreciate what you have though, thats wild to me to have a baby sleep that much!! My 2 year old has never done that!

Thanks so much for your replies everyone! I’ve been mindful of the 4 month sleep
regression and am just waiting for his sleep to turn on its head so good advice to wait that out first, thank you.

@Peonies12 it’s wild for me too! 🤣 My daughter was the worst sleeper at this age, we had endless sleepless nights with her so I thank my lucky stars every day for the way this little guy is sleeping even if deep down I know it probably won’t last 😅

Until 4/5 months, babies go to bed very late in my experience. Enjoy the long night time sleep.

They will naturally adjust into an early night in my experience.