When did you start a "bed time" and what is it?

My boys are just two months old -- and we've gotten to a good place (PLEAE don't jinx me!!) with sleeping in general.

A routien is gradually naturally emerging -- The boys are "up" for the day at about 5 - 6 am (early I know - UGH!) and stay up with very short cat naps (15 min or so) until 11:30 -- they are generally not fussy during this time== just up and having fun looking at their moble - playing in their gym ect. Nothing I do will get them to sleep during this time - not car rides, not the swing nothing. THen we hit 11/11:30am - and they go down for their first nap = usually lasts until around 2pm. THen they are up, feed, and have maybe 20min "play time" for a totally of about and hour of "up" time -- then they are down for a nap again until 5/5:30pm... then I do a bath - feed, and another 30-40 minutes of "Play" = and I usually put them in their swings for what used to be a short nap (just enough time for DH to get home and for us to have dinner) -- Then they used to wake up on their own around 8/8:30pm....eat and be up until around 10/10:30 -- our usual bed time -- and we'd put them to bed then.

Well, the last 3 nights - they have gone in their swing as usual around 7pm....and have slept until 12/12:30am!!! Tonight its happening again! Do we just need to start puting them to bed at 7pm? DH will be really sad about that since he often doens't get home from work until 6:30/7pm -- and really enjoys doing that last feeding, and spending time with the boys -- but we want to do what's best for them. What has been your experiance?

TIA!

 

Sounds similar to what our girls did. They used to stay up until 9 or 9:30, then it moved up to 7. Now they are in the bed or getting really really cranky at 7 so went by what they were doing and try and get them in bed at 7. Good Luck.

 

We started putting them to bed at 7:00 when they were (adjusted) about 6-8 weeks - 3 months actual age. If you can hold them off until your DH comes home then he can do the bedtime routine from 7-7:30 and get his bit of "Daddy time" in. It's hard to try to make changes in the schedule with just one - never mind TWO! When they were still getting up at night we would just wait for the first one to awaken and feed them both in their bedroom. The only time they were allowed out of their room was in normal daylight hours.

Good luck!

 

I would definitely run with the 7pm bedtime. You may also notice that it might even need to be a bit earlier the older they get in the next few weeks. Sounds like you are off to a great start. For us, the boys dropped the 11pm feed first, so we moved them to an 8 Pm bedtime and then gradually earlier and earlier once they emerged with a nap routine and then dropped that third nap in the evening.

 

This happened to us around 4 months. We continued to dream feed them at 10pm until about a week ago even though I put them to bed at 7pm. My DH also comes home late and misses his evening time with the girls, but he has the whole morning with them while I'm at work so he can't complain. Plus its not really quality time when you keep up the kiddos and they are screaming from being overtired (we made this mistake only once!).

 

Ours have been going down at 7 for about 2 months now. A few days ago, though, we noticed they are tired by 6:30 so we've been putting them down at that time. So far, it's working great. They wake up with daddy at 5 to eat as always, and let me sleep in until 8 or so. One still wakes up around 2 am to eat sometimes, but other than that they sleep through the night.

I hope that helps! I'm not a big fan of scheduled naps, but we have a strict bedtime around here! I'd let them go down at 7, which seems to be what they want to do. Good luck. :winking0009:

 

I think we started an actual bedtime around 3 months. They would go to bed around 8 and wake up a couple times for feeding but go right back to sleep until about 7 or 8. Now they go to bed by 6:30 or 7 depending on when they got up from their last nap. They still get up to eat at night but don't get up until somewhere between 6 and 8. When they were the same age as yours we were still fighting to get them to sleep by 11.

 

We did 7 pm in the beginning, then changed to 6 pm at 2 1/2 months, and that has slowly gotten a little later, closer to 6.30/6.45 pm.

 

In the first year, bedtime was between 6:30 and 7 and he'd rise for good around 6-6:30 AM.