12 w/o DD won't sleep before 11

[showtunesgirl]

12 w/o DD who is EBF just won't go down before 11 most days. The earliest I've managed to get her down is 10pm and I really would love her to go down earlier, even if it's only an hour or so earlier like at 9 that would be great.

At the mo, I'm trying to bath her at 7 and then a feed and bed but as soon as her head hits the cot, she screams blue murder. But during the day, there is no problem at all in getting her to take a nap! She then usually ends up with us in the kitchen until much later.

I don't get why she just won't go down earlier!

Anyone?

Last night she went down at about 1am. :(

Sorry but sounds normal for a 12 w/o to me. Both my DDs used to just come to bed when we did when they were that wee.

My lo only went down when i went to bed (and sometimes later) from about 12 wks though i started creeping tge time earlier...couple of nights at 9.30 then 9/9.15 etc. I also found bathing her earlier helped (4.30now before 'evening' and dinner starts). Took a while tgen made a huge leap when i read somewhere that one reason tgey wont go down till late is because theyve already gone through a sleepy phase much earlier and to look for tired-cues. So i saw her getting 'calm/quiet' around 7 and took her straight to bed. It worked! (she was aboit 15/16weeks at this point). Yes she often stirs 20 mins in where i help her to re-settle, but then its 3/4 hour chunks!. One word of advice watch you are not getting frustrated trying to get them to go down earlier when theyve possibly just hit a growth spurt, because Everythings tough goibg at those points, and tgeres iften one around 12weeks.

Hth x

Excuse my awful typos (sucky-ipod)

Ps from what i understand babies only sleeping around the time their parents do/or little later is normal sometimes past 6m even so dont get dishartened if it doesnt change for a while.

X

Thanks. It's just that I was puzzled as a lot of the ladies at the group I go to on Mondays all put their babies down at 7pm and apparently they stay down!

Mine doesn't go down until late and sleeps in 3/4 hour stretches.

My DD was always coming to bed around the same time as us up until 6 wks and I vidivdly remember my mum saying (in a non critical way) how things had changed since her day because she always used to put my sister and I to bed at 7pm. I asked her how??? She said she just did it! Pah! Not what you want to hear ey?! This coincided with me getting an email from some baby company promising that if you started a bedtime routine that you could get your baby to sleep better at night in 7 days. There was no way she would go to bed at 7pm we thought, she would only go to bed at 10 or 11 and even then it was a struggle, but worth a try right? Night 1 it took hours but we were consistant (and god she would scream) and each night it got less and by night 7 it was only taking 30 mins for her to go to sleep. We did would take her up at about 6:45pm, give her a bath, feed, story/song and put her in the crib. We did stay with her until she went to sleep and at first there was a significant amount of rocking, singing, playing music but eventually she understood the earlier time and now we literally put her in the crib and she knods off. Before I sound like a smug parent, I'm not, I'm grateful because daytime naps are a MAJOR battle!!

If you want your LO to go down earlier, give it a try, what have you got to lose?

I could have written your post a few weeks back. My dd was never in bed before 10pm most nights, some nights it would be as late as 1 too! Like you everyone else's babies seemed o be going to bed at 7 and I couldn't figure out why my dd was always hanging out in the lounge with us until really late. Anyway when she got to 3 months it suddenly changed and she started going to bed at 7.30 ish. I didn't change anything about my routine it just happened. I think they just eventually get to the age when it happens...3 months seems to be the magic time so hopefully not to much longer for you - its so nice having our evenings back :) although they then also get up earlier :(

My 9 week old goes down between 7 and 8 most nights...but wakes every 2 hours for a feed. I found he started sleeping in my arms around 7, so figured it was a good time to start putting him down. For him and DS1, the bath has always had to be right before bed to help them sleep.

Well, a loose routine has been put in place and for the last week the latest she's gone down is 930 and it's 830 most nights!

I'm doing a very rough EASY routine but am feeding on demand. We're also using an ocean sounds CD which she seems to find comforting.

DH decided that we should take things one step at a time and not expect: going to sleep at right time, in her cot, not falling asleep on the boob and self-settling ALL right now. So she feeds on our bed until she's almost asleep, then weeave her there making sure she's safe and then at 11, another feed and transfer to cot.