early bedtime = early wake up ?

We moved bed time up last week because they boys were having a really hard time going to sleep at night. I figured it was because they were overtired and going to bed too late. They used to lay down around 9:30 and fall asleep by 10:00. They were sleeping until 7 - 730 am. Now that they're asleep by 8:00 they're waking up at 5 am and I'm doing everything possible to get them back to sleep or make them rest in their cribs until at least 6 am. Doesn't Weissbluth say that an earlier bedtime should help babies sleep later? I know an early bedtime is best but I'd much rather hang out with them more in the evening than at 5:00 in the morning. Should I just stick with it and hope they'll adjust and start sleeping a little later? Or should I move bedtime up even earlier? I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

 

Hmmm... It's possible that they might be waking up early because they're still overtired from before. 10-7 is a really small amount of night sleep for a baby. 8-5 isn't great either, but at least an earlier bedtime is more natural for them.

My instinct would be to make bedtime even earlier still. 7, or even 6:30 if you can manage. I don't think it'll make them wake up earlier. If they do wake up too early, it may be easier to get them back to sleep. And once they catch up on sleep, they may sleep later naturally.

How are their naps?

 

My twins are early risers, 5.30 - 6.00 am but go back down after a bottle. Since Weissbluth is our pediatrician I've discussed this issue many times with him in person and over the phone and so far we haven't found a solution. Whether I put them down at 5.45, 6.00, 7.00 pm or later, it's still the same. So we're still putting them down at 6.30 pm which seems to be working well, since they're waking up at 3 pm from their 2nd nap and they've been on a 2 nap schedule from 4 months onwards.

I guess the most important question is ... how do they behave in the late afternoon / early evening. If they appear tired ... put them down, if they seem to be doing fine, you could hold on for a little longer, but once they continue to grow older, they'll probably shift to more hours overnight and less during the day, so in the end they would need an earlier (he says 6-8 pm) bedtime in order to get enough sleep during the night. He also suggest that you have them on a 2 nap schedule by 9 months of age at the latest, and if necessary do an early bed time with 2 naps (which we have done from 4 months onwards, but that also worked best with my oldest's schedule).

HTH.

ETA: My oldest was going to bed at 6 pm at 4 months of age, and slept 13 hours straight until she was well over 2. Now she goes to bed at 7 pm but still sleeps 12 hours straight. For her it was the same, whether I'd put her down 5.30/6.00/6.30 or later ... she would still wake up at 7 am ...

 

Thanks to both of you for responding... I'm going to try and move bedtime up even earlier tonight. They are still being very fussy when we put them down at night so maybe moving bed time up even more will help. The only problem is that sometimes they like to take extra long naps (2 - 2.5 hrs) in the morning and afternoon and when they do it pushes back our schedule. Should I wake them early from naps to keep us on schedule and ensure an early bedtime?? What would you do?

 

QUOTE(fuchsiagroan @ Sep 27 2007, 02:30 PM) [snapback]426547[/snapback]
Hmmm... It's possible that they might be waking up early because they're still overtired from before. 10-7 is a really small amount of night sleep for a baby. 8-5 isn't great either, but at least an earlier bedtime is more natural for them.

My instinct would be to make bedtime even earlier still. 7, or even 6:30 if you can manage. I don't think it'll make them wake up earlier. If they do wake up too early, it may be easier to get them back to sleep. And once they catch up on sleep, they may sleep later naturally.

How are their naps?

She took the words right out of my mouth!

 

CEB023 - we're having some similar troubles and will be putting them down a little earlier from tonight forward with hopes that they will sleep later. It's interesting that our boys are about the same age and having basically the same issue. I hope the earlier bedtime works for both of us!

 

I also suggest an earlier bedtime. My babies do best when they're asleep by 6:30. I know it's early and means my husband doesn't get much Q.T. with them after work, but they're happier and healthier after a good sleep. If I put them to bed after 7 they actually seem to wake up earlier.

 

QUOTE(ceb023 @ Sep 27 2007, 08:54 PM) [snapback]426589[/snapback]
Thanks to both of you for responding... I'm going to try and move bedtime up even earlier tonight. They are still being very fussy when we put them down at night so maybe moving bed time up even more will help. The only problem is that sometimes they like to take extra long naps (2 - 2.5 hrs) in the morning and afternoon and when they do it pushes back our schedule. Should I wake them early from naps to keep us on schedule and ensure an early bedtime?? What would you do?

That's why I don't allow them to nap after 10.30 am in the morning (going to bed 9.00/9.15 am) and then not past 3 pm (to bed at 1.00/1.15 pm) most days (unless something weird is going on).

Weissbluth always told me to see how your children behave around 4-5 pm. If they're fussy, clingy, whining ... their bed time is too late ... You can improve this by putting them down earlier and the fussiness at the end of the day should decrease!

HTH again!

 

I agree with the others. Try an earlier bedtime. My girls go to bed at 6:30 & wake up around 6:30 in the morning. I will say though that when my girls were younger, they would continually wake up around 5am...then they gradually started waking up later & later. For us atleast, it seemed to be a phase they just had to grow out of.

 

QUOTE(AandKtwins @ Sep 27 2007, 11:36 PM) [snapback]426769[/snapback]
I agree with the others. Try an earlier bedtime. My girls go to bed at 6:30 & wake up around 6:30 in the morning. I will say though that when my girls were younger, they would continually wake up around 5am...then they gradually started waking up later & later. For us atleast, it seemed to be a phase they just had to grow out of.

At 10 months were still stuck at 5.30 - 6.00 pm ... we have been for 6 months or so. But Weissbluth told me some kids just do, but it will get later ... so we're just waiting and waiting ... and waiting ! At least they go back down until 7 am.

 

I seem to be the odd one out here -- my older DD always slept 12 hours at night from whenever we put her down, and since DH and I are night owls, that was usually 9pm to 9am or 10pm to 10am. Then, her daytime nap(s) were naturally later, to adjust to this -- she always did great with this schedule, with no sleep-related fussiness. I haven't read HSSHC, so I don't know if he allows for exceptions....

Now, my little ones seem to be falling into the same routine -- their bedtime is between 9:30 and 10pm, and they both sleep through until 9am, when they take a bottle, and go right back to sleep until noon! And, they still take two 90-minute naps during the day, plus one small catnap in late evening....

So, I don't know what to tell you -- based on my own experience, moving bedtime earlier wouldn't work for us. I don't know if there are two kinds of kids, those who sleep a certain number of hours, and others who wake at a certain time, and I just ended up with the former?

 

Becca34 I couldn't be more jealous.

 

ceb023

Let us know how it goes with an even earlier bedtime tonight. I am wondering about moving mine up from 7:30.


Good luck!
Amy

 

My girls wake up at 6:00 but then go right back down after their bottle/nurse. Usually they are good until 8:30 or so.
They are asleep by 8:15/8:30 at night.

 

this is a tricky one for us b/c we have to find just the right time. There's a point where, if we put them to bed too early, they'll wake early. At the other end of the spectrum, there's a point where if we put them to bed late they will wake too early. This has been the case for us since day 1, really. At that age, our's were going to bed at about 7:30 and were waking 1-2x a night between 7:30 pm and 7am.