DD (5.5 months) currently goes to bed around 6.30pm and has been waking up around 5.30-6.00am to start the day. She is not consistently sleeping through the night sometimes I need to feed her to get her back to sleep. I'm just wondering if I put her to bed later eg. 7.00-7.30pm would this perhaps mean she would wake up a little later or just mean she would be less sleep? I do a dream feed at 9.30pm as well.
I don't have any answers unfortunately but hoping someone does. My 5 month old usually goes to bed at 8.30pm and although she sleeps through, wakes up between 5-6am. Fantastic that she sleeps through but as I'm finding it hard to cook dinner as my partner works evenings so there's no-one to literally "hold the baby" in the evening. Plus it means I'm up for two hours max before she goes to bed so I don't get much grown-up time.
Sorry I haven't helped - just wanted to let you know that I'm in the same boat so will be watching this thread with interest.
The only thing I can suggest is to make the dream feed a little later (ie. 10.30pm) as this may help her last a little longer. Another thing that worker for us was to feed as soon as bubs wakes (ie. 5am) and straight back to bed if I thought this was too early or he was still tired. This works best is it's still dark as I treat it like a night feed. I would only make bed time a touch later if anything as it may not make that much difference. Good luck!
In our experience DS wakes up at the same time regardless of what time he goes to bed.
He is an early riser also, which id fine on workdays but I'd love a sleep in on the weekend every now and again.
My DS would always wake up at the same time, regardless of what time he went to bed, what time he was fed during the night, and what the weather conditions were outside (ie dark and cold, still up at 4.30am )
Apparently a baby's timetable has alot to do with your timetabl before bubs was born. But i was lucky, when DD was 6 months i started waitressing at a local restaurant - and sometimes wouldnt get out of there till 2 am! By this time she was on the bottle as my milk just dried up - but, not too long after she kind of got to the stage where i think she could understand that it just wasnt time to get up yet. Sometimes i would just give her a bottle and she would go back to sleep, often till 10am. She was about 9 months when this happened. So hang in there, bubs will hopefully read the signs and not wake you up too early soon!
She is 6 now and still sleeps in till 9 am or even later!
Bridee i agree with every one else.
DDwill wake up the same time regardless of if she goes to bed at 6pm or 8 pm... i wouldnt keep him up as it could make him grumpier and then a worse night sleep.
I dropped night feeds at 5 months. i was hard but i refused to feed dd b4 5am - it took about a week but she then slept through every night since. also stopped dreamfeeds about 6months and she didnt wake up still so i figured she didnt need it and wasnt hungry so why wake a sleeping baby?
We can go out at night & not get DS to be til very late & he will still wake around the same time every morning. The only time he sleeps in, like today is if he refuses an afternoon nap.
I found he was waking at 5am, but would cry not be all happy and chatty like after a day sleep....so I go in with the lights still off & give him a feed & put him back to bed & he will sleep til usually 7.30, that works well for us. I like that he's in bed by 7pm most nights as DH & I get time together to chat, eat tea etc.
Just a msg for Fiona, what time does DH start night shift? My DH also does night shift & I found it earsier when DH was cooking a meal for his tea that night to sit & have a plate early whilst he was still there. That way I had something to eat & I could free myself up from cooking etc to relax when bubs was alseep. Though his night shift didn't start til 5pm.
Erin - to answer your question, my DP's shift start varies. It's complicated - one week he does a morning shift so, for example, today he started at 6am and was home at 3.30pm. Then the next week he will be doing afternoons but it won't be at the same time every day. So he might start at midday, he might start as late as 4pm. But before I'm ready for dinner. That's OK, I just need to work around it. I was starving at 10.30am this morning (I'd been up since 5.30) so thought "bugger it, I'm having spaghetti bolognese for breakfast." But if I've been out and about and want dinner at a normal time, that's when it gets tricky being on my own sometimes.
I know exactly what you mean & how you feel. My DH does 7nights, couple days of & then 7days & so on. All 12hr days so never there when DS wakes up & often misses him before going to bed. Pain in the bum isn't it.
Babies are born with an alarm clock - bet you didn't know that. I've heard it's a Panasonic branded one. It is set to go off at 5:30am usually. My baby's is set for 5:00am - he is an eager beaver and evidently has a lot to achieve...........
He will go to bed at 6pm and wake up at 5:00am - he goes to bed at 9pm and wakes up at 5:00am. Pretty clever, I reckon. Time of going to bed doesn't appear to make any difference to time of wake up. The only difference it makes is just how grumpy your baby is after being awake for an hour.
Erin - I hear ya on the shifts. Sometimes it's great - like when he starts early and is home early (today) because it means we can get up together and he gets home when I'm beginning to flag. But I'm not liking it when he's on afternoon shift. He can get home anywhere between 9pm and midnight which means he's often not in bed till 2am, then I feel I should be as quiet as a mouse all morning until he wakes up and then not expect any help because he has to go to work later. It's not like I need much help but an extra pair of hands is always good. And because he gets paid great overtime, often he'll work 9 days on and then 1 day off. Fantastic because that means I can be a SAHM for longer and we have great flexibility in terms of him taking the extra overtime or not, but often I envy mums whose partners work 9-5, Monday - Friday. Still, everything has its pros and cons and I think on balance I prefer the flexibility (and overtime rates) that we have.
Bridee, I can't see the harm in trying. I mean when daylight savings start and finish we have to adjust there sleep times anyway and they get used to that. so maybe try putting her down hour later for a week and see if she starts getting up bit later.
We adjusted our DD sleep times we put back bedtime half an hour and after a few days she started sleeping that half hour more in the morning.
Sometimes putting bubs down earlier can result in them getting up later. It sounds crazy but if keeping him up later doesn't work it might be worth a try.
I find that if they stay up late they still wake up at the same time they just want thier nap the next day a bit earlier.
Just wanted to give an update, this morning DD woke at 5.30 I fed her in the dark and put her back to bed - she slept to 7.30. It has only happened once, so hopefully it works again.
Yay -sounds perfect (well, perfect would be sleeping until 7.30 am in the first place, but YKWIM). Sounds like bubba is just a bit peckish nice and early.
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