Just wondering what time you put your LO's to bed and what time they get up... Our girls usually are in bed around 7:30pm and usually sleep till about 6:30-7:00am BUT for the past couple days they have been getting up at 5am...Mommy and Daddy arent liking this too much! Thinking maybe we should try and put them down a little later? We already use white noise and have room darkening shades...
In my experience putting them to bed later doesn't necessarily mean they will sleep later. They could be hungry, maybe give them a bit more for their last feed, that may give you your two hrs back. As for when mine got to bed and get up, my oldest Donevan, who is 2, goes down at 6:30-7 and sleeps till about 7:30. Nathaniel goes down around 9, sleeps till 7:30, and William goes down around 11, sleep till about 7:30. The twins are 3 months old.
My 9 month old twins go to bed at 6 and get up around 6:30ish. I worked hard on that from day one to get them used to bedtime. It used to be 7 was bedtime but since the time change it is now 6, tried to move it back but they won't budge. They get so fussy around 6, no matter what I do. I guess I did a wonderful job. :yahoo: Anyway it wasn't until about 3 weeks ago that they started to sleep in to about 6:30, they would get up at 5-5:30. I decided to just let them CIO for the a few days to see if they would go back to sleep and they did. They would only complain for about 15 minutes and then sleep until 6-6:30. :Clap: Not sure what I would do if they started to wake up at 5 again (knock on wood :gah: ). I would probably CIO a couple of times as long as they aren't crying really bad or too long or are sick. If you can hack that I would suggest trying it. I wish sleep wasn't so hard for babies. <_< I wouldn't put them down any later. I would put them down earlier. How are they when you put them down at 7:30? I go by the book Healthy sleep habits happy baby, which says sleep begets more sleep. But you never know what will work, so maybe try it both ways to see which one is better. I hope that helps. Here's to wishing your babies SLEEP!!! (I love sleep, sigh)
I agree that putting them down later may not solve your problem. According to Weisbluth in his book, "sleep begets sleep." I have found this to be very true. If my kids need more sleep I put them to bed earlier and most of the time they will still sleep to the same time in the morning and occasionally later. I think if you keep them up they may get overtired and overstimulated and be harder to get to sleep and stay asleep. We did the 5am wake up for about 3-4 months. And yes, it stinks, but they did mature out of it. I really didnt find a trick to solve it.
Our girls are in bed no later than 10pm and they sleep until 8am. But they did go through a spell where they were waking up earlier, but that only lasted for a short time! Thank goodness!!!
I feel for you! We've had similar sleep issues that we've been dealing with for 3 or 4 months now! We used to put our boys down around 7pm and they would usually sleep until 6:00am-6:30am. Then fall DST struck and screwed everything up. They started waking between 5am-5:30am after that. Well we aren't early birds so we tried the "sleep begets sleep" approach (something we heard ad nauseam, lol) and started putting them to bed between 6pm and 6:30pm, but that had no effect. In fact, they gradually started waking earlier and earlier until they were CONSTANTLY waking up between 4am and 4:30am - aaaack!! We tried moving them a little later and went back to the 7pm bedtime, but only got modest gains. I saw some other moms here post that they do put their babies to bed later (anywhere from 8pm to 10pm) and that their LOs sleep later. So we have been putting the boys to bed between 7:30pm and 8pm for over a month now and they are consistently sleeping until about 5:30am, sometimes a little later or a little earlier. So basically we are back where we started at. But after going a couple of months waking up before 5am I'll take it!! Spring DST is just around the corner so rather than push their bedtime even later to 9pm, we'll just wait for DST to hit again and maybe they'll sleep in even later. I know all of the books say to put your babies to bed earlier if they are waking up too early, and while that may work for most babies, it does not work for ALL babies. So I would say just play around w/ different bed times by adjusting their bedtime in 15-20 minute increments, and keep that bedtime for 3-5 days and if that doesn't work then slide their bedtime another 15-20 minutes keeping it for 3-5 days and so on. Hopefully you'll find just the right bedtime for them soon! It is really is maddening when you have to get up so early day after day, though oddly enough we are getting used to our 5:30am wake up and considering it sleeping in if the boys can go to 5:45am, LOL.
From 6 - 12 months it didn't matter what time I put my girls down for bed at night, they woke up at 5:30 am. So I put them down for the night at 5:30 pm, and they got 12 hours of sleep each night. It wasn't our favorite thing to wake up so early but we enjoyed having evenings to ourselves.
I agree with trying to put them to bed earlier. It doesn't seem right, it seems like you should keep them up later, but earlier usually works better.
The boys go to bed at 6.30. No matter what I do, they get tired at this time. O sleeps until 6.30-7.30 in the morning, E wakes at 4.30-5. It's early, and I don't like it either, but there is nothing I can do about it. For the records, I tried to put them to bed later - let them take a catnap at 6.30 and keep them awake longer - somehow they still woke up at the same time. It did not help.
i have been having the same question over here. by 630 they are SO fussy! we force them to stay up till their baths at 730, then bed no later than 8. they sleep until anywhere until 7 - 8. i was thinking of trying an earlier bedtime, too. we were going to try 730 in bed tonight and see how it went. i am afraid if i put them down earlier they will wake earlier!
I agree with all of the PP that later doesn't always equal a later wake-up. We have had spells on and off where they want to wake a bit earlier but in our house you don't get out of your crib until 6:45 - period. If they wake at 5:00 they usually give a shout out in hopes that one of us will come get them, but when we don't they often go back to sleep. Only rarely has ds stayed awake but he just sits in there and talks and plays until it is time to get up.
There's this odd thing about their sleep cycles. Putting them down later won't necessarily mean they sleep later. Actually, putting them down a half hour earlier might make them sleep later because it changes the time they are stirring to a little earlier in the early morning hours. I'm a big believer in the early bedtime. At 7 months, ours were 7:00 or earlier - as early as 5:30 or 6:00 on some odd nights if they were clearly tired. And getting up in the 6:30 range. Even now, at 2, bedtime is 7 to 7:30, with wakeup in the 6:30 to 7:00 range. I'd either try a little earlier, or try to ride it out (they will probably start sleeping longer on their own). Honestly, I would not bump the bedtime back at all.
