When will they sleep in?

Right now my babies go to bed at 6 p.m. or so and they are up between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. I'd love to go to a church event, party, or out to dinner with another family, but we are stuck at home because the babies go to bed so early. I have friends who keep their babies/toddlers up late and it seems to work for them. Our little ones wake up at the same time in the morning, even if we put them to bed later. When will they start sleeping in if they stay up late? Is this a developmental thing, or does it just depend on the kid?

 

I think it just depends on the kid(s). Also, people are more willing to keep singletons up late because they can make up some sleep with random naps during the day, but with twins you can't do that or they'll get out of sync with each other!

The early bedtime definitely limits what you can do, but DH and I tried to get around it either by taking turns staying home, or by having people over (we would put the babies to bed and then socialize). After age 2, their bedtime did get gradually later, so at least we could go out with another family for an early dinner as long as we were home by 7:30ish.

It's only since age 3 that their wake-up time is at all related to when they went to bed the night before, or even how tired they are overall. They will sleep an extra 20 minutes or so if they went to bed really late, but they never sleep enough later to really make up the sleep. So we still try to maintain the bedtime (which is now around 8:00) whenever possible.

 

The latest my girls have ever slept was about 8 am and I think that was only once! They did start sleeping until between 6 and 7, which is an improvement from the first year when it was 5:30 every morning.

 

Aimee, how did you get them to sleep in longer in the morning? Did you start putting them to bed later?

 

My guys usually wake around 7:30-8, but we have been putting them down at 8pm for over a year. This is just the schedule they've gotten used to.

 

Mine go down at 7pm every night and are up at 7am. My kids are those that if they stay up later they wake up earlier. I also notice that when naps are off then they tend to wake up earlier as well. Good luck!