When should I try for an earlier ‘bedtime’? 7 week old

[Pipperleen]

Hi everyone,

My 7 week old is a good night-sleeper. She goes down around 1030pm and will often either wake up once or sleep through until 8am.
I am more than aware that this may all change, believe me I am counting my blessings.

She gets really ratty and a bit sad in the evening and I was wondering whether I should be trying to put her down earlier (7/730?) and then expecting more night wake ups.

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated! I’m just wanting her to be a bit happier in the evenings and not get as stressed out if that’s at all possible.

Thanks for reading.

Assuming she's still in the room with you at all times for her sleep, I think that's amazing for such a young baby and id leave her to it!

Personally I found bedtime gradually got earlier and it wasn't a particularly conscious thing. Mine tended to cluster feed and doze for a while in the evenings. I would put them down in the moses basket beside me (or just cuddle them) and not really know if they were having a power nap or down for the night! Does your baby have a late nap? I would assume with a 10.30 bedtime she needs a nap at 7/8ish.

My baby was like this and fell into a natural routine of going to bed around 7/7.30pm around 12 weeks.

He’s 8 months now and goes to bed at 7.30pm with a bottle and then another bottle at 11.30pm. He then sleeps until 7.30am.

I found he just sort of naturally fall into it. If I tried to enforce a bedtime before that age, he became very stressed. I just sort of went with the flow and it happened gradually.

*fell

Yes, I think she needs a nap around 7/8 too but she’s a dozer really in the day, probably because she is sleeping well at night.

Lucy, that’s good to hear about your little one. Sounds like they are similar. I have tried to enforce bedtime but she’s not having it. As a PP said I might just treat earlier as a nap for now and see what happens.

Thanks for your thoughts, very much appreciated.