Night Owl baby likes to stay up late!

[Kristy&Alex]

Hi Girls,

I was just wondering if there are any other mums out there that have trouble getting their babies into bed (& down for the night) before 10pm?? My 6.5mth son has 2 naps during the day ( I have tried to stop him having 2 ) & then wont settle until around 9 or 10pm :eek: I am becoming quite disheartened not to mention tired as I keep reading 'all the other mums' & how their babies go to sleep at around 6 or 7pm???!!! Once bubs is asleep he doesn't wake until about 7 or 8am. But I dont think it is good for a baby to be up this late!

PLEASE HELP ME! :confused:
OH & DID I MENTION HE HAS NO ROUTINE WHATSOEVER!? :mad:

[mum2ryan]

Hi Kristy,
I hope you're feeling better... you were all sick last time we spoke.
Ryan used to be exactly the same with not wanting to go to sleep. Not to mention that everytime I got him into a routine, we would have more visitors come to stay with us for weeks at a time, by the time they went home, I was back to square one getting him back into a feeding/sleeping routine.

I found that once Ryan started eating solids he would settle at night alot easier, usually around 7:30 or 8:00pm. If he's still up after that he tends to get moody and throw a tantrum.
I don't think having two sleeps is bad for a baby, Ryan at 10 months has two (if i'm lucky). One at 10am, the other around 2-3pm. Dinner at 5:30, drink at 7-7:30, then bed. Get him into a routine, Alex will probably scream and cry for a while but if he's fed, changed and comfortable, he will settle himself. Stick to it, don't be like me and cave in to give a hug, it only starts to process again.
PM me about metting up this coming week!

I hope i've helped.

Leonie

[TLCC]

Hi Kirsty,

We too had a night owl who didn't like going to bed till 9.30 or even 10.30 on occasion. We used to wait till she was rubbing her eyes, yawning - the whole thing and then put her down which took ages in itself. The problem we found was that she was overtired. :(

We now put her down anywhere between 8 and 8.30 and only have 5 mins or so of crying then she settles and takes another 10 or 15 mins to fall asleep. She looks relatively awake but rubs her eyes when she hits the bedroom.

She is now 13 months old and has 2 sleeps. She is up at 7am, down again 8.30 till 9.30/10ish. Lunch at 12, nap at 1.30 till 2.30/3ish. Dinner 5.30-6, Bath, BF play and sleep. We found we had the most troubles when we had no routine as it was different every day for her. Now we don't wait for too many tired signals, we put her down at the same time and she generally goes off to sleep quite happily without any rocking/patting etc.

Good luck, try putting him down 10 minutes earlier each night for a week and see if you can at least bring it forward 1 hour. We still have to stay in the room with her for her to go to sleep at night but we don't have to rock her, she just likes to know someone is there.

[bec05]

We have exactly the same problem (though our baby is only 3 months) and are nearly at our wits end! We have been trying a routine but she thwarts it every time! Last night we did the usual, gave a bath, final bf and she was in her cot at 8pm but that was just the start of the fun! She screamed, we tried to pat & shh etc to no avail, we picked up and rocked, I finally gave another bf (there is always the worry she just won't settle bc she's hungry!), she fell asleep, we put her back in the cot, she screamed (and I mean SCREAMED - not whingeing), etc etc - she finally fell asleep (on the boob on a mattress on the floor, because I was at the end of my tether) at 11pm! I know people say that 'giving in' is just reinforcing the bad habit but we cannot let her scream 1 hour until she chokes, it feels ********. On the other hand this nightly saga is destroying us! But how to we get her to fall asleep? I wouldn't actually mind feeding her to sleep if that's what it took, but it doesn't work because she wakes the instant we put her down! We also observe tired signs etc and try to put her to bed straight away, but if she sleeps it will be 40 mins then she's awake again & won't resettle until 10.30 or 11.

So I agree - night owls are really hard, I'm looking for answers too! Is it just the baby or something we're doing wrong?

[TLCC]

Hi Bec05

Yeah, its hard with a 3 month old. I must admit we didn't have a good routine till Tayla was nearly 7 months because something would always change during the day, she slept longer /shorter, BF longer, slept on feed, didn't sleep on feed etc.

We too used to have her eyes wide open the moment she hit the mattress which would annoy the &#8 out of me as she would sleep so well in my arms.

I'm not sure what to suggest...we started to change her routine by reading nursery rhymes before each sleep (during the day aswell). Even when she was really little she would relax in our arms as we sang the songs then was a bit more peaceful before bed.

Its hard though because you always wonder if they are hungry or need a burp or wet nappy or just plain cranky.

Your not doing anything wrong it just takes time to work the system out for each baby (sorry I know that doesn't help).

I got desperate and started a diary to record what was happening each day as the days she would be okay I would go along my way and then the next day i'd do something different but wouldn't know what. I was so tired I couldn't remember what had worked the day before. When I did a weeks worth of entries I read them back and found I was all over the place which probably didn't help.

[Imogensmum]

Bec o5- I don't know if this will help at all but is your little one wrapped????

I had stopped wrapping my little girl at 2 months and at 3 mths i had exactly the same prob- well actually she would settle fine but wake after 45mins- continuosly alllll night! So i started wrapping her for her night sleep again! So far so good(has been 2 weeks)! The other thing i recommend is placing a small radio under her bed- noise sometimes helps as she won't feel so alone!

I hope it sorts it's self out!!!

[Ana Gram]

My daughter is also a night owl and has been from the word dot. She has always been a good sleeper, that is when she does get to sleep. She is almost 22 months and refuses to have a sleep during the day most of the time. Last night she didn't go to bed until 3am and this morning was woken by a tradesman nextdoor at 9am (who has been making noise for days now!!)

[JanetF]

My son goes to bed when I do around 10-11pm and we get up about 9am. Routines are over rated IMO unless your baby sets it themselves. I'd be thrilled to have a child that slept how yours is sleeping. There is no inherent virtue or benefit in your child going to bed at 7pm unless they really want to. It just means they're going to be up with the birds and how many of us really love being up then? ;)

[INVY]

I too thought my baby was the only baby on the planet that wouldn't go to sleep early. We have no routine because to be honest her father nad i have no routine. We are both shift workers (he's a coppa and i'm a nurse) so i guess she's picke up on our so called routine. She sleeps through the whole night but she won't go to bed earlier than 11 or later some nights. I thought about sleep school and all that but i thought about it and realised that's her routine. My daughter is soo clever and has so much personality so i don't feel she is suffering in any way by going to bed late. She still gets her 10-11 hours of sleep but varies from time to time. I was so hard on my self last week because i tried to put her on a routine but it wasn't effective. My daughter is 10 months old with four teeth and loves having dinner with us at night! Enjoy it while it lasts. There's no right or wrong. And what i think what people forget is that each child is different. Remember that.
Regards Sascha :)