Is 8pm too late for bed time?

[pippa251]

I would really appreciate some advice regarding the best time to put dd to bed. She is only 8 weeks and is a good sleeper, at the moment we bath her at 19.30 then it's feeding and she's usually asleep by 20.30.

It's working for us as DP is home from work in time to help me bath her and then keep me company as I feed her ( which we do in our bedroom watching tv). I then go to bed about 9 as I'm knackered!

However, I don't know if I should bring it forward (she has a nap 17.00 - 18.30) but I'm intending to go back to work FT in July and she'll be at nursery until 19.00 hrs. Should I keep the bedtime/ routine like this so we don't have to change it when I go back to work or is 20.00hrs too late to go to bed? I'm a little worried as most of my friends with children have bed time around 19.00hrs

any advice / experience greatfully appreciated

I would say go with what works for you - my DD is now 2.3 and she goes to bed at 8 (sometimes a bit later)and she is fine.

I guess if your DD is getting up early too and struggling a bit then you need to reconsider but I don't think 8pm is inherently 'too late'

Hi Pippa, I would say that if you have found something that works at this stage, stick with it. 8pm is not "too late" as long as your DD is happy. You may find as she gets a bit older that bedtime naturally shifts earlier. My DD fell into a routine of 3 naps with the last one between about 4-5 and bedtime at about 7 when she hit 4 months. But before this bedtime could be as late as 9 or 10 pm. I certainly think it's far too early to be thinking about July at this stage! Your DD's sleep patterns will almost certainly change between now and then. I'd recommend Reading Dr Marc Weissbluth Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child - it's good at explaining how sleep patterns change over time even if some of his sleep training methods are a bit harsh.

thanks - i needed reassurance. I will try the book DR.

I can echo what DrCosyTiger has said - my daughter is now 22 weeks and has always been a relatively good sleeper insofar as will fall asleep easily without much assistance. But we never managed to achieve any kind of 'bedtime' until about 3/4 weeks ago, evenings were just extensions of the daytime, ie a mixture nap, feed and awake time, and she went to bed with us about 10 or 10.30.

She literally just took it upon herself to create a bedtime of 6.45 /7ish, and now goes down quite happily at that time and generally sleeps until 10 pm ish when she has another feed.

The main thing is, it's clearly working for you, your DH and your daughter, so go with it!