When to try and get Dd 4 months to bed earlier?

[neepsntatties]

she won't settle until 11 at the moment, fussed from around 7 when Ds is in bed. She often sleeps from 5-7, should I try and cut that nap short or just leave her be? I spent hours trying to get Ds into a sleep routine when he was a baby but it was a waste of time and a big stress but would really like an early night!

Personally I think babies so young have their own routine and should be left to it. My DD (3 months) fell in to a routine of having a nap around 5-6 and then going down for the night at 8/9, which is a bit too early for my liking but there we go! If you want her to sleep earlier then you could always try cutting the evening nap short, and then bathing and feeding at around 7 and see if that helps. Also it changes a lot when they're still so young so she might start going to sleep earlier soon :)

My DS is 3.5 months and sets his own routine, which seems to change every couple of weeks anyway! He went through a stage of going to sleep at 6.30pm a couple of weeks ago but then he just stopped and we spent a couple of hours putting his dummy back in for a few nights until we just decided that he obviously wasn't that tired. So now he has a nap on one of us around tea time and when he wakes we play for a bit, BF, bath, BF and bed. No set time (usually 8-9), just depends when he wakes from that last nap. During the day he's only really awake for an hour - 1 hour 15 mins but after that last nap he'll go 1.5-2 hours.

I would just go with what your DD wants to do. You might find if you cut her nap short she'll be grumpy and overtired and will struggle to settle for bed. It's all trial and error though so you could always try and it and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Some people bring bed time forward by 15 mins each day, could be worth a try? :)

Thanks, I had planned on just leaving her as it was a waste of time with ds. However today she got up at seven and she is asleep now so am off to bed so maybe that is the trick, just get her to start the day a bit earlier.