Am I completely screwing this up / setting myself up for major problems later???

[FunkyCherry]

Have 16wk old DD. Sleeps in moses basket next to bed. FF.
From day one I've let her decide what she needs e.g. feed her when she wants, cuddle her when she wants, sleeps when she wants. Therefore, we have no set nap times, but an average day goes like this:

7am - wakes for feed, straight back to sleep
10-11am - wakes for feed, comes into bed with me for snuggles. We both drop off to sleep.
1pm - wakes for feed. We both get up.
Feeds as and when she wants through afternoon while we play/sing/walk/grocery shopping.
5/6pm naps for about 45mins/hour
Feeds as and when she wants through evening while she gets to play with dad.
10pm - take her upstairs, feed (bath 2/3 times a week)fusses for various amounts of time, falls asleep on me and then I put her in her moses basket. I sit up using laptop/watching tv until OH comes to bed.
1am last feed.

So basically I've got into this really bad habit of never getting up before lunchtime. This is partly due to even before I had her being constantly tired. I used to work various shifts too, so had to grab sleep at odd times.
I really struggle to get to sleep before 1/2am so need to lie in, but that perpetuates the cycle.

WHAT DO I DO??? AM I HARMING MY DAUGHTER??

Please be gentle.

Unless you are going to need to get up in the morning for work anytime soon, or it bothers your partner, then why worry ?

I might move her bath to 6ish so that if she was inclined to go to sleep earlier you aren't waking her up, and maybe try and improve your sleep habit so that you are either sleeping in bed, or go bacxk downstairs to watch tv etc - just that otherwise you are getting into the habit of staying up really late which will be a pain when your dd is more awake

Taking the full year maternity leave, so no need to get up any time soon :)
Maybe that's part of the reason I like to stay in bed, worked for 20yrs so enjoying the fact that no-one controls my time any more!!!

Sounds lovely! I don't see anything wrong if you're both healthy and happy. I'm sure she's a very contented little baby.

Yes, I'm v.lucky she's a good baby.
Also her being awake in the evenings means my DH gets time to play with her.

Late bedtimes and getting up time??!

[henvy]

Enjoy it while it lasts!!

my now 9.5 m.o. has always struggled to sleep much later than 6.30am.

Enjoy it!

Thanks all.
I sometimes get disapproving comments e.g. from HV and tonight I was in the supermarket just after 7pm and the checkout lady said 'shouldn't she be in bed by now?'
She's my first and I'm just learning and getting through as best I can.

How rude of the checkout lady! I do wish people would keep their passive aggressive advice to themselves. I always think its very odd when people are smug about getting up early. Your routine sounds lovely.

I think you should just be playing it by ear at this point i agree - you just need to be there for your baby. Enjoy this time. Soon enough you will want to be out and about in the mornings for activites and coffees with fellow mums. If you had this routine with an older toddler/pre-schooler though it could be a recipe for disaster - but that is some distance away. Some of my friends kids struggle through school and are very whingey/naughty due to extreem and regular late nights. Two of the kids have serious adult type sleep probems now and can't get off to sleep b4 midnight - then have to be up at 7.

OK, I'll be gentle...

Enjoy it.

Cos it won't be possible when number 2 comes along!

(But you probably knew that already!)

Sounds like you have a lovely routine that is centred around your daughters needs and not what anyone else/a stupid book tells you what you should be doing. She'll gradually start to nap less and gradually get more structure to her day (and you'll miss the sleep) but she will do this in her own time without any encouragement from you.

Obviously if you want to change things for whatever reason that is fine too but it sounds like you're doing great!

That sounds lovely, enjoy your lie-ins with your baby :). There's time enough to start moving bedtimes/getting up times around when she's older.

And it sounds like you're getting a good chunk of sleep between 1-7am, which is great!

that sounds very similar to my routine with 15-week old ds. am trying to shift it back at the moment but he likes going to sleep at 1am! no advice, but if you're both happy, go with the flow.

Hey funkycherry, Im on a similar routine with DS1 (8weeks old) tho I get up bit earlier to shower and do housework whilst he sleeps in the morning. Am being very baby led but would like to shift his routine back a bit so he goes to bed earlier but not so much that he wakes me up in the wee small hours. Would rather go to bed at midnight rather than 2am. Is that a bit wanting to have my cake and eat it [hgrin]?