Bedtime for a 6 month old ?

[CJ98]

I’ve recently moved my daughter into her own room & own cot and was just wondering what time “bedtime” should be ?
I started putting her to “bed” between 6 & 7 but have found she wakes around 10pm and then doesn’t want to go back to sleep until around 1:30-2am.
Am I making her bedtime too early ? When she wakes it’s usually every 3 hours & it’s around a time for a bottle. I give her a bottle and then lay her back into her cot but have found she’s usually wide awake and not wanting to sleep.
Am I doing something wrong ? What can I do to make sure that at 10pm she isn’t awake and refusing to sleep ?

Honestly I wouldn't worry too much about bedtime at this age.

She'll probably happily hang out with you for another few hours of feed/play/change/sleep.

Once she starts being more mobile, and eating more solid foods, then you'll know that she may get into an earlier bedtime routine. This won't be overnight though, it will probably be a gradual reduction of that last feed/play/change etc.

Don't worry about it!

I’m just struggling with the 10pm/11pm wake up. Last night she woke at 10, had a bottle and then didn’t go back to sleep until 12. Tonight she’s woken up at 11, had a bottle & fought us until 1. We just keep her in her cot but it’s exhausting having the fight with her.
We just follow her & whenever she shows signs of being tired she goes into her cot and basically stays there for the night. We haven’t really been focusing too much on a bedtime it’s mainly between 6pm & 8pm if she shows signs of being tired we just keep her upstairs in her cot.

My DD is 9 months now,
I know you don't want to hear it but just stick to what you're doing and you'll notice it will get earlier and earlier. My DD from 4 months did that waking up after i put her down for the night, she would be up until 3am sometimes. It's hard but it will click into place eventually, it's only the last 2 weeks she's started going down and staying at 9:30/10 and I even think that's late for her age compared to most babies but I've learned the more I try force it the worse it is, if I accept and go with it, it's easier

@CJ98 If our dc had gone to bed at 6, DH would never have seen them in the evening! We didn’t put them to bed until 8. Sometimes later. Both slept through the night very early with waking around 6. I’d rather that than 2 hours late at night with a split night. You are getting a free from child evening but you are paying for it later. So your choice is extend bedtime or put up with the split sleeping. I’d try the former.

I always thought when DDs started walking they would go to sleep earlier. They didn’t. Not when they went to nursery or school either. I just came to the conclusion not all babies and children need 12 hours! They just don’t.

We’ve noticed over the last couple of days if we put her down between 6-7pm she’ll sleep throughout the night. She’ll wake at 10/11pm for a bottle and she’ll make a bit of a fuss and won’t go back to sleep until around midnight. She’ll then stir a little anywhere between 5-7 and it’s usually just her dummy has fallen out. She’ll then go back to sleep and wake up properly at around 9/9:30am for a bottle.

My partner works until midnight so it wouldn’t matter what time I put her down he’d never see her which breaks my heart. We just follow her signs so whenever she shows signs of being tired she’s upstairs in her cot. We are just struggling with the random waking at 10pm and then struggling to go back to sleep.

She sleeps with a dummy in? All night? Hmm. I’d start pushing bedtime later than 6. 7-7.30 is reasonable and see if that stops her being hungry at 10. She obviously cannot go 12 hours without feeding.

She doesn’t sleep all night with her dummy in. She soothes herself to sleep & then spits the dummy out. We pushed it back to 7 last night & she still woke up at 11 wanting a bottle.

I’d keep going later and later then. Just to try it. An experiment. She’s hungry so is she eating food? If so, when? Maybe a later “supper”? Essentially she’s sleeping for 10 hours if she’s awake for 2 at night. So I’d try lots more milk/food later in the evening. Just to try it out. Does she have an afternoon nap? Mine did so they were not sleepy at 6. No morning nap though - unless in the car! I would just try changing things around and see if anything works after say, 1 week. If not, stick with the best of the options.

They go through a bunch of sleep regressions in the first two years so this sounds normal. You wouldn’t make them stay up until 10pm just so in theory they sleep through, you just have to keep doing what you’re doing. I spent many a ‘split shift’ with my DC at that age in the nursery in the middle of the night. We started with a routine of bath and bed at around that age and have stuck with it ever since.

I’ve been pushing it back an hour or so everyday just to see what works better & I usually just give her a bottle before she goes to sleep. I might try a bottle and then some “food” just to see if that changes anything.

I haven’t been taking her out of her cot during these times I’ve just left her and seen if she goes back to sleep on her own. I just go in and soothe her with putting her dummy back in when she starts crying. She’ll normally just lay awake for an hour or so and then start being tired. Getting her to sleep isn’t the issue to start off with, it’s just the 10pm wake up that’s hard to handle especially when I’m doing it on my own.

@CJ98 Obviiusly I don’t know what might help but trying food before bed seems worth a go. If you don’t change much, one assumes nothing will change. We didn’t have a dc waking up from 8 weeks but we did have late bedtimes.

We are slowly changing things one at a time so we don’t get too stressed out and through her current routine out too much, we’ve tried the late night bedtime and it seems to be working but I know eventually she’ll be wanting more food before bed so eventually we will try that,

Mostly dc do sort themselves out. A bit of trial and error can help so you get her sleeping through. Good luck.

I think 7-7.30 is a good bedtime, starting the routine about 6.30 (bath, story, feed then down). Mine were sleeping through by six months but I'm surprised at the 9am wake up for the day - mine would be up between 6-7am (my son usually before 6am, but even today at 21 he's an early riser). So I'd try and get her down by 7.30pm with the expectation of her being up for the day at 7am - maybe that's the key.

We were surprised by the 9am wake up, it’s not that we wake her up it’s just the time that she decides to wake up. We’ve tried everything with her bedtime starting from 6:30 & last night making bedtime 11 and she still woke up at 9am. We’ve not had an easy time with her sleeping since she was born and we unfortunately don’t wake up till around 9am ourselves (my partner works evening shifts) and so getting up earlier for us is a struggle but once I go back to work she’ll be woken up at any earlier time.

Does 9am matter for a 6 month old at the moment? She’s sleeping 10 hours so that’s quite good. My DC never did 12 hours. 10 is good!

i think that’s why we aren’t too stressed about what time she wakes up on a morning. We literally went the first three months of being awake every 2 hours with her, the fact she’s sleeping through the night is a massive improvement from what we had a few months ago.