What’s your evening like?

[Kate3150]

My LO is coming up to 5 months. He goes down usually 8-8.30. He’s still sleeping in our room in cot, I’m still going to bed at same time he does. Are others doing the same? X

Does it matter.. do why's right for you. Some will have time alone with monitor on, some in their own room, some will stay in parents room much l8nger and others co-sleep.

If you feel you want to go to bed later, just try it and see how you feel.

My boy is 14 weeks and we tried to do a night routine from about 8 weeks, following his lead. He gets really cranky about 630ish so we tend to start the routine from about 6. He has a bath every other night as every night was drying his skin out.

Sometimes takes him a while to get down as he cannot seem to self soothe for the night but can for some of his daytime naps! However we did put him to sleep at 7.45pm yesterday, letting him have a nap about 6 and he slept better so we may try that again tonight.

He sleeps in the crib next to us but I may start trying him in his cot for daytime naps to get used to it as we are aiming to move him around 6 months.

Even though we are trying to still suss out his routine, I’m so glad for the couple of hours we get to ourselves on an evening!

We're doing the same as you with our just over 5 month old.

Even earlier though, we're aiming for 7pm.

We've accepted that he's the priority and we normally both hit the sack at the same time. It's not like we ain't tired and let's face it tv is shit 😂

When I'm at work I'll sleep in the spare room as I work 12hr shifts.
On my days off my mrs will get the spare room for 1 or 2 nights, then for the others we'll tag team it.
Nice to be in the same bed together but sleep is very broken for both doing it that way.

Sometimes I go to bed at the same time as DS (3 and a half months), sometimes if I’m not that tired I stay up with the monitor on. We’re in a flat though so only a few metres from the bedroom. If you need the sleep then it’s fine to go to bed! I quite enjoy having the evenings back though, plus whichever one of us isn’t doing bedtime will get the dinner ready.

Evening routine is usually bath at 7ish, then feed, cuddle and in crib by 7:30ish. I would love to introduce a story/lullaby like all the advice on routines seems to mention, but I haven’t made it through a story without him starting to scream yet, so maybe later. Worked hard on not feeding him to sleep, starting a couple of weeks ago, and it’s gone OK. 9 times out of 10 he whinges a bit when put down, but usually drifts off with me patting his chest. The longest he’s gone in one stretch is from 8pm to 4am, he usually wakes between 1 and 2am and then again later in the night.

Opposite to @E899 - DS settles well at night but is a crap daytime sleeper.

Thanks for all your replies.

I understand it’s personal choice completely.

Being a first time Mum, I’m always intrigued as to how others do things. Maybe I naively thought by this age, DS would go to bed early so I could have a bit of an evening with my Husband.

Im having a bit of a battle getting him to sleep and by the time I do, I’m ready for bed myself. I would love an evening with my Husband, I feel like I’ve neglected him a bit but I know it won’t last forever.

I read (maybe too much!) about babies this age doing 7-7. I can’t even begin to fathom how we’d achieve this as he’s definitely not ready for bed at this time X

Our daughter is nearly 7 months and we all go to bed the same time... 8-8.30!
Tbh I quite enjoy chilling on my phone and then drifting off!

10 month old, co sleeps, goes in her cot around 8pm asleep, wakes up wondering where I am about 10pm we go to bed and she sleeps til 8am.

Need to sort it out soon tho 🙈

@OccasionalNachos how did you stop feeding to sleep? I don’t mean to but he just falls asleep on the boob so we then move him to his crib! Ideally want to get out of this habit

It sort of happened naturally, he was quite refluxy and would often cry and spit up a few minutes after I laid him in the crib, and waking him to wind him would result in him being wide awake. He almost always has a bottle last thing too, either formula or expressed breast milk, then there’s a clear finish to the feed.

If he cries when put in the crib, I shush & pat him for a while, depending on whether he’s just grizzling or properly crying. If it goes on longer than about 15 minutes then I pick him back up for a cuddle and try again.

I still feed him to sleep if he’s unsettled, or during the day if he’s clearly knackered and needs the sleep. But knowing he can settle without it makes me feel less like a bad habit is being created! (Plus I kind of love it )

Do what is right for your baby and your household. My little boy is 4 months and is in bed by no later than 6pm... that is the time he has sort of chosen to start his “big sleep” and will sleep until maybe midnight (sometimes 11ish). He will then wake up for a feed and go back down until maybe 2-3am, then we are usually up for the day between 5-6am.

I don’t mind him going to bed so early as me and my partner get an evening together without having to worry about the baby as he is tucked up in bed :)

DD was in bed by 7 at that age but we did make a huge effort to get her to sleep overnight, from a very early age we kept her in dark and quiet during night time (DH sat in dark watching movies on the phone when she was very small!) and started a bed time routine when she was a few weeks old. We have always worked naps backwards from when we wanted her to go to bed, right at 6 months we got on to a schedule of 2 naps/day for 1.5-2 hours each and bed at 7. That stuck around until a couple months ago when she dropped to 1 (now 19 months). For the first few months getting her to sleep well was literally the only thing we focused on! Some people just want to get on with their lives and just bring baby a long but for us our strategy has suited us long term.