Delaying baby's bedtime

[Whiskers10439]

Hi all. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with (and hopefully tips!) for delaying bedtimes for your baby?

I'll explain - I've always followed my daughter's lead when it comes to bedtime since trying to keep her awake when she's tired, or trying to get her to sleep when she doesn't want to has always seemed exhausting and pointless. However, I think she takes her night time cues from the sun since over the summer her sleep time was 8/9pm, then it gradually got earlier and earlier and tonight she just fell asleep at 6.30. I don't necessarily mind her going to bed at this time, but this leads to 4am being morning for her! Not at all desirable! She's 4 and a half months. What can I do??

When she's tired then she cries, rubs her eyes, buries her face into me etc. so I can't really think how to keep her awake for longer - if that is indeed the answer - without her just crying and then us all having a horrible evening!

what naps does she have during the day?

To be honest 6.30 is a normal bedtime at this age - will she not go back to sleep at 4.30?

It's not the answer - she will still wake at 4.30 and will be completely knackered. She's 4 months old. That's still tiny tiny. If she's sleeping from 6.30 - 4.30 I would be thanking the sleep gods for all the sleep I was getting and just go to bed early.

And yes to normal bedtime - my 4 year old and 2 year old go to bed at 6.30

Don't keep her up.
My 7.5 month old goes to bed between 5-6pm

Yep, agree it's normal bedtime. You are so lucky she's sleeping through until 4.30. Does she go back down after a feed at 4.30?

I think it would be a bit pointless trying to keep her up. IME holding off bed has never meant more or later sleep. But four and a half months is an awful time for sleep generally so my sympathies to you. How many times is she waking between 6.30 and 4.30? How long is she awake each time and how long is she up at 4.30 before first nap? One thing that might just work is rousing her a bit before 4.30 and feeding her when she's still sleepy / even asleep and putting her back down to finish the night. Then you can push this back in tiny increments. But like any trick I guess it'll work on some but not others! nothing bloody works on mine

Oh and also 6.30 is a good bedtime. I certainly wouldn't want to get a child used to a late bedtime IYSWIM - I think they all eventually learn to sleep longer, it's a development thing, but bedtime is a behaviour / environment thing and won't as easily and organically get earlier? Could be wrong but just my theory. based on my less than extensive experience of one baby

Thanks for the comments, everyone.
She doesn't nap very much at all during the day so maybe I need to get her to nap more.
6.30 bedtime is good for me, just as long as it doesn't keep getting earlier!

At the moment she does wake a lot throughout the night. This is new for her and I think is a part of the 4 month sleep stage where everything goes out of the window! Mostly during the night she goes back down no problem after feeding (or just cuddling sometimes), but it is after 4.30ish when she doesn't want to sleep any more and just shouts at me (not crying, shouting!)

When I had a stretch of early bedtimes / early wake-ups I tried to enforce a later nap to get the little bugger to go to sleep later. Might not work for you, but it was around the time she was dropping her third nap. We were coming up to the clock change and I could see the 5 am wake up turning into 4 am! So for a week I did afternoon trips which guaranteed her nap in the car on the way and the way back. That helped to push bedtime a bit later. Might not be an option for you of course but it worked for me! Just don't ask how much I spent on diesel that week...

I think.settling on an earlier bedtime is a pretty normal development (in my limited experience!) ds would often need and hour or even two awake in the night then go back to sleep.