Changing 9 month old bedtime/wake up time

[Jadegkeaney]

So my baby doesn’t necessarily sleep badly but she’s got herself in the routine of waking up at 5am and I find it hard keeping her up past 6pm. She has a nap around 2 hours after she wakes from anywhere between 40-1 hour and then a afternoon nap around 1-1.5 hours.

Should I gradually delay her bedtime in the hopes she will start waking later? A 6am wake up would make a difference rather then 5am. I’ve tried giving her a 3rd little nap to stretch it out but she sometimes fights it or then fights bedtime. Any advice welcome.

We're in the same situation with our nearly 9 month old, whose bedtime has crept earlier and earlier. We've had some success putting fixed nap times in place (so we have the first one fixed at 9.30 regardless of wake up time), or drawing out dinner or bath time a bit so bedtime gets gradually later without the baby noticing that much. I'm also not sure if a later bedtime definitely leads to later wake times, so I'm a bit nervous to push back too much in case DC loses out on sleep. So following with interest!

I think you need to try and either stretch the gap between waking and first nap (should be around a 2hr30 - 2hr45 window) OR try and resettle at 5am and get them to sleep later that way. Keep them in a dark room, minimal interaction etc. At this age 6pm is a really normal bedtime and making it later sometimes makes them overtired and they end up waking even earlier.

Just gradually change it by 5 mins a day. We have done this before to try to get DS to have an earlier bedtime. 6pm is really early to go down for the night!

Didn’t work here I’m afraid. Ds 15 months goes to bed around 8-8.30pm and wakes 6am. It used to be several times overnight and 5am wake so it’s improved, but he would have to go to bed at 10pm to sleep until 7am probably.

He naps once per day for 2hrs usually. But did only 20mins in car the other day, refused to nap again and still wasn’t tired

Does she sleep through from 6pm-5am?!

She sometimes does sometimes doesn’t. She fairly often wakes around 4 but can often resettle herself. Last night she woke at 3am and I stroked her back and she went back to sleep

Yes I will try. Yes her room is dark cool ect. It could be a lot worse I guess

I wouldn’t mess with her. Mine wakes up every 1-2 hours through the night a lot of nights. She sounds like a great little sleeper

I’ve tried stretching it out to 7pm and she’s screamed. Where if I lay her down around 6:20 she falls asleep herself. I know it’s earlier then I want hence the post.

She isn’t bad to be fair. That’s why I’ve been a bit hesitant to mess with timings too much

Move her schedule by 10 mins each day. Stretch the awake time in the morning later and so on. Meals and feeds have to move by 10 mins also.

You have to start with the morning nap, you definitely can't just keep her up later - as you've discovered.

I wouldn't bother TBH. The 5am wakeup seems to be the standard thing on here at this age. I know both my DC did it and they were both babies who went to bed about 7pm-8pm. It didn't make any difference.

Get yourself off to bed earlier if you can. I didn't mind it too much because DH gets up for work about 5.30am anyway, so would sort them in the morning.

Mine did 5am wake ups from when she was 6 months - 9 months. She's now starting to wake later between 6 and 7 and it feels like a massive lie in for us!! Bedtime has always been 6:30/7pm. We didn't do anything - the later wake ups happened naturally.