DD's ROutine Doesn't Suit Mine!

[turtleschell]

DD has a long sleep around 7pm - 1am, and then wakes up every 2 or 3 hours for feeds throughout the night, and then wakes up for the day at 7:30am.
While it's great having so much time to myself in the evening, I go to bed at 11pm and I'm tired of waking up every two hours. How can I change this? Should I try to just wake her up in the middle of her long sleep, so it's a normal 2 hour nap with a break in between? Or will this cause her to be irritable?
Her day naps are good, she's really very good, just not in sync with me.

[Claire_A]

How about trying to give her a dream feed before you go to bed at 11pm. I used to do this with my DD, I wouldn't have to wake her, she would feed in her sleep and then I would pop her back in her cot. Might be worth a shot?

[BekZ]

You will find that eventually your baby will drop off those 2 hourly feeds. IMO if your bub is going to bed by 7pm and doing a good long stretch at least once for her night sleep then don't rock the boat. Try and go to bed earlier. Those hours of sleep before midnight are the best

[sloane]

i'm not sure how old your DD is but i'd agree with the PP & either go to bed earlier myself or try a dream feed. i wouldn't mess around with her sleep!

[onthefly]

Hey Misty
I think sometimes we just have to work around our babies, you know? If you can dreamfeed without waking her then give that a go maybe, otherwise I would not wake her up - if she doesn't have that nice long stretch of sleep at the start the rest of the night could just get even worse (just talking from my own experience here).
7pm is a pretty normal bedtime for babies - can you get yourself to bed any earlier? Do you nap during the day when she does to catch up?
She'll drop those feeds eventually

[Mad Scientist]

Sounds like what your DD is doing is pretty normal to me. Unfortunately babies don't really fit into our routines ever, even when they get bigger. No matter what anyone says, we do have to adapt even just a little bit for our kids. That long sleep in the beginning of the night is what she needs so I wouldn't suggest waking her up during this. Your nights could end up being much worse as a result. I would really suggest trying to get your body clock so that you can go to bed even an hour earlier and get much needed rest. Unfortunately our lives revolve around sleep with little ones! Good luck

[turtleschell]

Thanks ladies!! Looks like I'll have to go to bed earlier. Makes sense really, I can have ME time in the early hours of the day.