Bedtime

[Shauna]

I cannot get my daughter who is 9months old on a good schedule. I mean I can get her up at 8 or 8:30 in the morning but she still wont lay down for the night until atleast 10pm sometimes she stays up until 1am. I don't know how to get her to go to bed earlier. Any suggestions for a bedtime schedule? Because my husband has to be up for work between 5:30 and 6:30 and the late nights are killing him.

[Anci]

have you tried to have a bedtime routine? A bedtime routine is always important for childern.Untill about age ten or so, a child thrives on spending time with the parent before bed.Reading books, talking, giving back rubs and simply being together are all important prebed rituals.
when your baby gets used to it, she'll know that after that it's time to sleep. We start our routine around 6 45 PM. I give her a bath, let her play in the water for a little bit ( she loves it!) than we have dinner, after dinner she spends 15 min or so with us on the couch,playing with daddy or we just fool around a bit and then daddy gives her a good night kiss , I take her to her room, give her the pacifier and her bunny, turn on the crickets (we have a white noise machine) and she goes to sleep. She sleeps from 7 45 PM till 7 15 or so.

[Shauna]

Thank you very much. I have tried getting her in a routine but not the same way. It sounds like it would work well for her. She loves spending time with her daddy after work. How old is your baby?

[Anci]

my daughter is 10 months and we started the bed time routine since she was a month old.( not in the exact same way, she was way to young lol, but you know what I mean)

[Anci]

yes, she always sleeps and naps in her crib. What I read was that any nap less than 1 hour doesn't really count, because cat naps only take the edge off and in the long run, the baby gets fussy because he hasn't slept enough and that sleep should be motionless. My daughter takes 3 one hour naps every day ( usually) but always in her crib. If we're out, and she falls asleep in the stroller or in the car, as soon as we get home she'll wake up...but if she's in her crib she sleeps without any problem.

[The Larmon Lair]

Hi there! I highly recommend The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Pantley. Our 9 m/o has a hard time staying asleep at night, as he breastfeeds almonst all night long. However, I've found Pantley's advice on bedtime routines to be very helpful in getting Zayn to sleep early in the evening (7:30 or 8:00).

Hope this helps,
dana

[Anime]

We have a routine similar to Anci - my daughter is 10 months too and since birth I have followed the Baby Whisperer book. It's not for everyone but it's sure helped us and she's slept well from the get go.
Her day is like this:
up 7:30 bottle
stays up usually and has breakfast around 9
nap 1 at 9:30 (about an hour)
up playing etc - another bottle and then lunch
nap #2 around 1ish (one hour)
then up again for another bottle - sometimes a catnap around 3:30 or 4
dinner around 6
bath then bedtime at 7
generally sleeps thru the night (wakes up the odd time due to teething but no middle of the night feedings)
If she fusses and doesn't go to sleep it's usually b/c she's still hungry.
99% of the time - another bottle will help her go back down and some tylenol if she's teething.
Good luck!

[Anci]

I second the'' No cry sleep solution''. I didn't have to use it much ( thank god) but I've read it and it has a lot of helpfull advices.

[Shauna]

Thank you very much. I will definately look into that.

[Mary Ann]

Our family has a bedtime routine for our 10-month-old, too ... turn on a lullaby cd, lotion and little massage (for her eczema), jammies on, finish her last bottle, brush her four little teeth, "read" a book and then off to bed with her blankie. My husband had been doing the routine every night, as I'm working at home with her during the day, but lately I've been doing it more too. She seems to sleep better if I spend more time with her after dinner. We try not to play too much, which is hard because she's learning to walk and wants to be on the floor moving around, but the more she plays the more wound up she gets, and then it's harder for her to sleep at night. We also recently moved her bedtime back from 8 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. as she seemed more tired in the evening and wasn't always taking a pre-dinner catnap like she used to. It puts a little more pressure on to get her ready right after dinner, but it also gives us an extra half-hour to ourselves.

[Shauna]

I just wanted to thank everyone for your advice.I have taken some from everyone and we are on a schedule that is so far working. Thanks a bunch guys :)

[Mary Ann]

Shauna ... I just thought of one more thing. I read somewhere that if you're trying to make big changes in a schedule (like moving a bedtime back from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m. or earlier), then you might try to change it in 15-minute increments every day. Easing into a schedule change isn't such a big shock to the baby, whose little system might just be used to that really late bedtime. Sounds like things are going better, thought. Yay for you and your family!

[Mike]

Consistency - keep doing the same things at the same time every night and she will get used to it and it will get easier for you. Kids need routine, breaking from that causes stress and makes their life more complicated. Hang in there.