My son will be 4 months old next week. He has been sleeping great at night since 10 weeks (usually 9 or 10 hours straight without waking). He typically awakens around 6:45-7:15 am for the day and goes down for the night between 8:30 and 9:30 pm. I will be returning to work soon and will need to have him out the door by 6:30 am, so he'll have to wake up earlier. Is there a way to make this happen naturally or will I just need to go in and gently rouse him? Also, I keep hearing that babies this age should go to bed earlier - is there a process for shifting his bedtime? I've put him down around 7:30 a few times because he was really tired - its worked well sometimes and other times he slept for 45 minutes then woke up and we couldn't get him back down for hours. He is breastfed if that makes a difference.
We didn't put our kids on a schedule...... I breastfed on demand and put them down when THEY were ready. Sometimes 7, sometimes 11!
I suggest that you just keep doing what works and he will adjust by taking an earlier morning nap at daycare or just a longer nap. Babies are usually quite flexible.
I would start making your routine as if you were going to work now. Wake him up at the time you need to wake him if you were going to work, feed him, change him and then allow your day to go on naturally. Your child will adjust himself to fit the early wake. I have 3 kids, all of which I have up at 5:30 am Monday thru Friday and in bed by 7:30pm. My 12 month old goes to bed by 6:30 pm and does not get up again until morning about 5:30. I will go in around 10 pm and feed her a bottle and she goes right back to sleep. The boys on the other hand go to bed but not to sleep and fight waking that early but do it. They only fight me when they get an afternoon nap which they only get when out of school, so it is my own fault by making them take a nap in the afternoon, but they need that break in their day.
I do not have a bedtime for say I look and see how many hours my kids nee to be "them" and make sure they get it, and get up in the AM when I need them to.
I hope this has helped
May be he needs more milk, he's not getting enough coz boys are different from girls, try to give him extra formula besides your milk, maybe he'll sleeps more..Good luck..
I think you may be able to slowly nudge the bedtime earlier little by little-depending on how long he has been up since the last nap. My daughter's bedtime is 6:30 (she is 10 months old now) and it has been that for a while. I would not let her take a nap after 4:30 so as not to spoil the bedtime and sometimes she'd be so tired she went down at 6!!!! Now she is getting up at 6am but it works for us and maybe could work for you. I am also breastfeeding and have found that even if the bedtime was close-ish to her last nap, if it was far enough away and we did our whole bedtime "thing" she would go to sleep. Good Luck-not sure if this was helpful at all!!!
he will adjust once you are waking him earlier if he needs it. if he is sleeping great, i would not try to move his sleep time dramatically. 7:30 is a one or two hour difference, which is pretty big. if he is cranky in the morning, start out trying bed just 30 mins earlier first to see if it helps. he may end up taking longer naps to make up for it, and also, since he is not with you, the naps schedule you have now may end up changed by his caregiver. i would prepare for a transition time and just watch his behavior and adjust to his cues.
babies adjust all the time, when the time changes in the fall and spring, they adjust. just give him time and try not to do too much change at once since he will be adjusting to his new day as well.
i would just try to have everything prepared. maybe a caregiver can dress him for the day instead of doing so much in the morning when he first wakes. just do anything to make the morning smoother for you both. good luck.
I'm with Miranda. Your baby's body is going through more growth and development in the first year than they will at any other time in their lives. They will have tremendous shifts in their schedules, and I personally chose to take their cues vs. having a schedule for my convenience.
Returning to work will be hard enough as it is for you, so I'd not make too many changes. Rouse him when you need to get him ready, and he'll likely start adjusting on his own. Also, pending the schedule at Day Care, you may find completely different patterns evolve over the next few weeks.
Good luck!
There really is no "ideal" bedtime for a 3 month old or 4 month old baby. They're really too young and their schedules may change so rapidly that it's hard to keep to a specific bedtime. His needs may change in the middle of making any gradual shift and due to some babies that age sleeping 10 hours, some 6 and some 3 without waking, there is no one size fits all. If you want to try putting him down earlier and see if he wakes earlier, fine but there is no guarantee that he'll be waking up when you need to leave for work. You may need to wake him or even to shift him into the carseat without waking him - he can be diapered and dressed for the day at daycare.
Good luck!
At that age, as long as my son was up for 2 hours prior to bed time, he would be sleepy for bed. I thought I was doing wrong by my son by putting him to bed after 9:00 (my bedtime) too, but it has worked out for us. I had 2 thoughts after reading your post.
1) When he gets a little bit older, he'll be able to sleep for 10-12 hours (not including waking up to nurse), so you'll want to put him to sleep at a time that will allow him to get enough sleep.
2) Also, I nurse my baby to sleep (in my bed) and have found that if I stay close by (or use a video monitor) and notice that he is rousing, I will lie down next to him and nurse him back to sleep.
