As your toddler gets older, do you put them to bed at night later??

[leanne30]

hi all

i have a question about the time at which you put your toddler to bed at night....

ever since my 16mth old DS was roughly 7 months old, we have been putting him to bed at 7pm every night. this routine has worked really well for us - he used to typically sleep a full 12 hours until about 7am the next day. the day sleeps have changed in this time of course (ie, from two naps to one), but this night time routine has stayed the same. and he used to fall asleep straight away after putting him to bed, or within 5 minutes or so.

lately, however, two things have started to happen. one - after we put him to bed both during the day and at night, he could spend up to 30mins talking and playing in his cot. secondly, he has started waking at about 6am on average. the other morning, it was even 5.40am! and i might sound a little precious by saying this, but it's just too early for me!!!

he still has the one day nap - and i usually put him down at about 11.30am and he'll sleep anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5hrs. this hasnt really changed for the past few months.

i was just wondering - as your toddler gets older, do you start putting them to bed later at night?? or do most mums out there keep the bed time constant? i know that he will drop his day nap at some stage (maybe 2.5yrs or 3yrs?), but i was just wondering whether i should change his night time routine - maybe put him down at 7.30pm or 8pm instead, with the hope that he goes to sleep straight away and sleeps in!

what do you all think? or do you think it's just a phase and i should keep going as per normal?

[satya]

You could try putting him down at 7.30 and see what happens.... it might make a differenc. In my experience with a toddler no matter how late we put her to bed (if we'd been out for dinner or visiting etc) she generally still got up really early and crept in to our bed. This happened from about 2 years of age.

[paradise lost]

I was an early riser as a kid. Mum and dad gve me an alarm clock with a big chicken on it and told me when the chicken flapped its wings (set at 7am) i could get up. I used to just sit in my bed and play with my books and toys.

DD goes to bed around 7.30-7.40 now. SOmetimes she's awake for hours, sometimes not, but bedtime is bedtime. In the mornings i tend to get her up about 8am, but if she wakes earlier i either totally ignore her (unless she's crying!) and she plays in her cot, or i brng her into my bed and we snuggle down for another hour's snooze.

I think my mum put me to bed earlier rather than later, once i dropped my nap.

Bx

[Cricket]

My girls both go to bed at 7:00 pm, (Elyse is 4 yrs, and Marieke is 22 months). Marieke has one afternoon nap, usually about 2 hours. They generally get up around 7:00-7:30am. However, my sister's little girl goes to bed at 8:00-8:30pm, and gets up at 6:30-7:00am, and has a 1 hour nap. She is 27 months old. Just a different nature, I guess.
Is your little one possibly responding to the increase in daylight? (You are heading into spring, right? - We're just getting into fall here.) I know my girls had quite a hard time sleeping once the sun started coming up earlier. Good blinds might help.
Otherwise, as the others have suggested, maybe encourage a little quiet play until a more reasonable hour. Keep the lights low, speak softly, give him a board book, or favourite toy, maybe a dry nappy if that's needed, tell him it's too early for getting up, and crawl back in your bed. Hopefully he'll get the idea eventually.

[MantaRay]

Jack is 2 1/2 now and I'm finding most days he isn't having his day sleep. I put him down, and he'll happily stay in his room, but he rarely sleeps now except at day care (2 days a week). So most nights now he is going down earlier than before - 7 - 7:30 used to be his bedtime, now he is often in bed asleep by 6 or 6:30 if we've eaten in time, sometimes he even falls asleep before dinner and sleeps through the night. I find the time he goes to bed doesn't really affect his wake up time - it depends on how tired he is and what noise is going on.

So really, I don't know what advice to offer you. I think cutting out or reducing the day sleep might help with him going down at night and sleeping longer in the morning, but the trade off of no time during the day while he is asleep is a pretty big negative. Perhaps just experiment a bit with a later bedtime, a shorter, or earlier day sleep. Just make little adjustments and see what happens. Good luck with it.

[widdly]

Archie goes to bed at 7 every night and most nights he spends aout 1.5 hours talking andplaying inhis bed happily til he falls asleep. i tried keeping him up a bit later but he was clearly tired and grumpy and wanted to go to bed so i still put him to bed at 7. i think he really enjoys having that time in bed before he goes to sleep by himself to wind down, i like it too as it means i have more relaxation time while hes in bed!

[krisp]

We used to put our DS to bed at 7pm too. We changed his bed time to 7.30 about 3 months ago and he sleeps to anywhere from 6.15 to 7.15am now. He dropped his second day sleep in April too and now sleeps from 11.30-12ish for 1.5-2hrs during the day. It worked for us.

[New Dawn]

As I have three kids the two older ones go to bed at 7.30 and will wake at 6.30 but they just sit a watch telly and my 15mth old will go down about 6.30 or 7 but as she still needs to be taped to sleep I dont have to worrie about her talking or playing as if she went to bed without been asleep then she would be screaming the house down. But she will still wake about the same time as the other two.

[Willow]

Our DD goes to bed anywhere between 7pm and 7.30pm. We aim for 7pm but sometimes if DH is home from work later or if dinner is pushed back for some reason then it's closer to 7.30pm as I prefer to eat dinner as a family and she generally eats better if her Daddy is there.

She also takes a while to wind down before actually falling asleep. Some nights it has been as long as 2 hours but it doesn't bother us. Obviously she is resting but not ready to nod off yet and needs this time to talk and sing to herself etc. She never cries or calls out for us or gets out of her bed so it just isn't an issue.

She usually wakes around 7.30am (used to be 8.15am before we moved her into her new room which lets in more morning light) and has a day sleep between 1pm and 3pm but does skip this occasionally if we're out and about. I think it will be a while before she's ready to give up her day sleep all together.