Please help me sort our evenings out - co-sleeping Velcro baby, 4.5 months old!

[Phoden]

DS is the classic velcro baby - all naps are contact naps and sleep only happens when co-sleeping. He is EBF and feeds to sleep.

I just can’t crack the evenings though. He will naturally fall asleep for his longest stretch (about 2.5 hours) at around 11:30pm. Clearly we want to bring this forward but even if we take him up at say 9:30pm then he just won’t fall asleep until later!

He will have a nap about 8:30pm for about 45 mins. I have thought about having this nap in bed, and maybe eventually he’ll stay asleep a little longer.

But, I don’t want my evening to finish at 8:30, especially when DH only comes home at 6pm and then we have to have dinner etc. And he’s too young to leave in the bedroom alone.

Can any other mums of velcro babies advise please?!

Ha - there’s actually a lot I can’t ‘crack,’ not just the evenings! 😆

He's really little. It'll come, but I wouldn't stress about it right now. Just make sure he's up at the same time each day so that naps don't naturally get pushed back.

We are so similar! 4.5 months old as well. EBF however he’s just started taking a small bottle in the evening as otherwise it was 3 hours of cluster feeding for me.
He falls asleep somewhere between 8-9pm most nights and can do a good stretch of sleep but only on me or my DH, never once have we got him into his own space for the evening. He screams the minute he’s put down for bedtime and naps have to be on me or in the carrier.
no idea how to change things to be honest! My DS1 was much easier to put down, this one no chance. It is awful though not having any time isn’t it. Sending solidarity x

My daughter was exactly like this. She just seemed to naturally have a late bedtime and wouldn't properly settle for the night until around 11pm. We didn't massively mind because she'd normally sleep in a little later so we didn't do anything to try and change it but I would say her bedtime naturally crept forward when she started to drop her naps. By the time she dropped her naps completely (as she turned 2) her bedtime was a more normal 7:30ish. I know it doesn't feel like it now whilst you're dealing with it but this stage will pass in the blink of an eye and you'll get your evenings back. Embrace the baby snuggles whilst you can :)

Does he have a dummy. Changed my life when I gave in to one

My daughter’s son is now 22 months old and sleeps beautifully through the night. However, this wasn’t always the case! She found a true and tested natural remedy to help put him into a peaceful slumber and it was like a miracle cure. “Sound Asleep for babies” by Dr. Elizabeth Scott, you can stream it through your smart speaker or use on your phone. Having my grandson to stay is a joy and if he becomes restless at bedtime or during the night, I just play him this music. It’s like he remembers from being a baby that this music is his safe place.

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