Active discussions

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

Original poster

Newborn - earlier bedtime when?

19 replies

eeanne · 17/01/2018 19:35

DC2 is 6 weeks and doesn’t sleep for the night until 10-11 PM. I feel like DC1 was already sleeping by 8-9 PM by this age. But possible I’m misremembering Confused

DC1 is 2yrs old and in bed by 7:45. Ideally I’d have both kids down by this time.

So will the baby’s earlier bedtime emerge naturally soon? Or do I have a night owl on my hands?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
123456kent · 17/01/2018 21:16

My experience was the same as yours at 6 weeks and now at 13 weeks she is “telling me” she needs to go to bed at 7.30ish (no strict time, but its around then)
She cries a few times so we are up and down the stairs 1-3 times, but by 9pm she’s usually fully settled

DrWhy · 17/01/2018 21:18

About 4 or 5 months I think. Prior to that he just seemed to be glued to me all evening!

Original poster
eeanne · 18/01/2018 12:05

4 months! I hope not Shock

Is there any point trying to make a routine of it or just wait for baby to tell me when ready? I’m not a Gina Ford type but I want my children to go to bed around the same time.

OP posts:
LDH17 · 18/01/2018 21:09

OP I'm in exactly the same position as you and have been wondering the same thing!
DS2 is 6 weeks and eventually goes to sleep anywhere between 9 and 11pm usually after a long battle of feed settle feed settle etc etc until he eventually drops off.
Ds1 is nearly 2 and goes to bed at 7pm, I would love to get ds2 to bed at that time too so have a bit of free time in the evening (even if he wakes up a few times) but I think we are a while off that!
I keep saying to husband when did ds1 start sleeping earlier and when did we start a bedtime routine etc, but we both can't remember Hmm, it's all just a blur now!
And he is not having any of this falling asleep drowsy but awake stuff!! Has to be fed to sleep or in pushchair or car Sad. Everyone kept telling me oh second babies are so much more chilled and easier, this one is not Grin

Marcine · 18/01/2018 21:13

My dc3 has just moved to a 7pm bedtime at 3.5 months. I think the others were earlier, 2 or 3 months.

Original poster
eeanne · 18/01/2018 23:24

LDH17 Same exact boat - from 6-10/11 it’s feed settle wake feed settle wake.

I guess it’s a waiting game! Totally agree the early months are such a blur it’s very difficult to remember now how DC1 was.

OP posts:
LDH17 · 19/01/2018 05:34

Well let me know if you crack it lol!
I keep thinking shall I try and put him to bed earlier but there's no point at the moment as he won't settle for hours anyway!
Should have written everything down first time so could remember it Confused

Original poster
eeanne · 25/01/2018 14:40

She’s almost 8 weeks now and getting to sleep 9/9:30 so some slight progress!

OP posts:
LDH17 · 25/01/2018 15:06

Eeanne - that's great, same here! DS2 is almost 8 weeks also and is starting to settle more often than not by 10 and sometimes 9:30 so is getting better. Sometimes he will wake again and will have to re settle him with the boob but normally quite quickly.
How is she sleeping in the night?

Original poster
eeanne · 25/01/2018 19:07

Great news LDH! We have 2 wakings overnight then up for the day at 6/6:30. Not bad but feels like not enough sleep maybe?

OP posts:
wildone81 · 25/01/2018 19:10

7 month old going down about 9/9.30, but that's after last bottle and then she's sleeping through till about 8.....

Has been getting earlier and earlier as she gets more mobile, and consequently gets hungry quicker looks for last bottle sooner...

Lemondrop99 · 25/01/2018 23:01

Mind decided he wanted to go to bed at 7pm at 7 weeks. I hadn't realised why he was so upset in the evenings, it's because he was tired. He woke for a 10pm feed for several weeks but he treated it like a night feed.

LDH17 · 26/01/2018 12:39

Spoke too soon last night was a bad night! Went to sleep about 10:30 after lots of screaming, then woke at 11 and not back till 12, then woke at 4 and was up for 2 hours before eventually going back at 6 till 8! But then DS1 up at 7 😴.

PP when you say at 7 weeks he goes to bed at 7, is that in the room with you or upstairs? DS won't self settle so if I just tried to put it him down there's no way he'd go. Evenings involve a lot of feeding and trying to settle! I think we need to start a proper bedtime routine.

Lemondrop99 · 26/01/2018 19:46

He goes to bed in his crib upstairs. But I sit with him due to the SIDS guidelines. Yes, it's been a long few months in the dark with white noise running!! But he sleeps much better that way and it won't be forever.

Mine wasn't self settling at that age either, but he did sleep in his crib so getting him into there I think helped him know it was bedtime. We also started doing nightly baths by candlelight (mainly because he enjoyed them) but I'm convinced this helped signal to him that it was "bedtime" as opposed to a nap.

Loads of babies don't go to bed until 9/10pm at that age. I just wanted to mention that mine did though, because I think it's assumed that babies that young don't go to bed early, and mine did (entirely by his own choice, he was just that way inclined).

Lemondrop99 · 26/01/2018 19:50

Swaddle and a dummy really helped us too (just ditched the dummy at 3.5 months). We used the Love To Dream swaddle which was fantastic, easy to put on, very natural positioning and my DS felt very secure in it.

You say lots of feeding. Are you breastfeeding? If your baby is cluster feeding at the moment, you might need to roll with it for a short while and try a bedtime routine after that settles down.

LDH17 · 27/01/2018 03:54

Yes I'm thinking of maybe bringing him upstairs to try and settle in his crib as he does sleep ok at night in there. I don't mind having to sit up here I will prob just go to sleep as soon as he does to be honest lol.
Well he feeds a lot but I think a lot of it is just comfort and he just wants to suck, as he gets annoyed when there is too much milk. So then takes a while to settle him. Have tried a dummy with mixed success, sometimes he will have it and settle but more often he will just spit it out.
We put him in a sleep bag now but may try swaddling again as he did used to like this in the early weeks.
He was a bit better tonight anyway, he was asleep by 9:30 but was screaming before that. We will get there! X

Original poster
eeanne · 28/01/2018 01:29

I’m also having some success with the Love
To Dream swaddle. Not falling asleep before 9:30 still but doing longer stretches.

OP posts:
ThunderboltsLightning · 28/01/2018 01:35

Mine was 5 months when he suddenly started showing that he did not want to be downstairs in the evening any more. He's now usually in bed by 6.30-7.

LDH17 · 12/02/2018 21:15

Update - we are having some success getting him to bed in the evenings! Decided to try and bring him upstairs to settle as he wouldn't settle downstairs and would just get more and more upset. Been bringing him up about 7 / 7:30, am still feeding to sleep (will tackle that another day!) but he will eventually settle (with holding him for a while) and the me and DH share sitting up here with him to re settle if he wakes.
Not too bad it's better than spending all evening try to console a screaming baby!
He will wake then for another feed anywhere between 9:30 and midnight, then settle again. Hoping to start trying to settle him up here then put monitor on and we can both go downstairs, building up to that though!
OP how are you getting on?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread