Bedtime

I just read in my "Juggling Twins" book that it is a good idea to put the babies to bed no later than 6:30. Does this work and what is the benefit? My boys are 9 weeks old and are sleeping about 4-5 hours at night.

 

We did and our girls were good sleepers (still are). It was a pain scheduling wise, but worked. They often went to bed at 6/6:30- we dream fed at 10---they were up at 6 am for the day.

I know it doesn't work for all people/schedules....but we seemed to avoid the 6-10 PM craziness a lot since they slept.

 

I starts baths at 6 and they are in bed right around 6:30. I don't do it because someone told me it was a good idea...I just learned from watching them that bedtime needed to be early. If they are not in bed early it's crazy around here

 

6:30 just doesn't work in this house. We started off with an 8:00 bedtime, but the girls couldn't last that long. Now, their bedtime is 7 or 7:30. They sleep 12 hours straight and have done that since they were 4 months old.

I can't believe how many people tell me that they can't believe my girls go to bed so early (at 7:30 at night!!!!)! I don't think that's early at all! I'm glad you started this thread, it will be interesting to see what others say!

 

I never read the book you mentioned but always had an early bedtime for my children. We still send them to bed at 7pm and they are 8,8,6. (My 8 year olds read in bed before they fall asleep.) It worked wonders for us and they never fought us on it - it is all they knew. We were able to stick with this because my DH came home early from work and dinner was early also. I think consistency is the key.... so find what works and stick with it.

 

I could never, because I'm just not an early riser. I knew that I couldn't expect them to sleep more than 12 hours at night, so when I put them to bed determined their wake time in 12 hours. I do 8:00pm-8:00am. They take a late afternoon nap, 5:30pm-6:30pm, which is enough to eliminate the evening fussiness, let hubby and I eat dinner and they don't wake in the morning until 8:00am...a GREAT time for me I started this routine right from birth and my girls slept through the night (8pm-8am) at 7 weeks of age. But, it's different for everyone. We all keep different schedules that our babies need to adapt to.

 

QUOTE(2xthefun @ May 31 2009, 09:23 PM) [snapback]1335504[/snapback]
I starts baths at 6 and they are in bed right around 6:30. I don't do it because someone told me it was a good idea...I just learned from watching them that bedtime needed to be early. If they are not in bed early it's crazy around here

same here.

putting them down earlier helps them sleep longer and more solidly. on days when their bedtimes get pushed back after 7 they have more night wakings and they tend to try to be up for the day before 6 a.m. and they're grumpier when they wake on those days.

 

I start baths at 6pm (have since 4 months) last real bottle at 645 bed at 7 pm. We dream feed at 10pm and they sleep till 630 am. This would never have worked before 4 months. There was no real bedtime before that.