Breastfeeding to Sleep - Elkridge,MD

We're not really on much of a schedule at my house. My oldest is 3 and she has a pretty strict bedtime. My youngest is almost 11 months and she goes to bed when she's tired. Sometimes it's 8 and sometimes it's 10. The other night it was 1:30 (which I was not happy about). Just do what works best for you.

We NEVER put our kids on a strict schedule...... We farm and my husband sometimes only gets in the house at 8:30pm and the kids enjoy spending some time with him when he gets in!

I also breastfed our son (strictly for 9 months and continued along with food till 18 months) TO SLEEP as well! He was much more content than our daughter was who I only nursed till 6 months.

Our kids are now 3 and 5 and they go to bed anywhere from 8:30 to 11pm just depending on if something is going on! We just go with the flow and it suits our family quite well!

Congrats!

I would say... just to not stress yourself too much. Whatever works for you and your baby is what you should do.. There's no textbook time that babies have to go to bed at. My son is 8 months and goes down anywhere between 7:30-9. You can always pump before work and leave a bottle with whoever is watching her.. and have them feed it to her at the time you want.

Keep doing what is working for you now. Both of my exclusively breastfed kids had varying bedtimes during their first year. When my son was tiny he would sometimes go to bed at 6:30 and then it gradually changed to a bit later and later until it was somewhere around 8. The first year you really have to follow their lead. They will tell you what they need and when they need it.

But at 5 months I do remember both of them being up a bit later, more like what you are talking about. Neither of mine was sleeping thru the night then though so lucky you! If it ain't broke don't fix it right now!

I agree with Miranda and our family also goes with the flow. My son is 20 months and he goes to sleep around 9:30 each night. This is much later than I would like, but he does not require much sleep. My husband gets home late from work and by the time we finish dinner and dishes and bath it's already 8:30! He wakes up each morning around 7. I also nursed my son to sleep until he was 15 months old. The transition went really well when I weaned him.

Whatever works for you is what's right!

I also used to work retail when my son was a baby. I worked 2 jobs and I didn't get home til 9:40ish and it was my only time to see him so I purposely didn't put him to bed til 10 or 10:30. He also wasn't in daycare since my husband worked at home and he didn't have to be up by any certain time and could sleep late. He is 8 now and goes to bed at 8:00 even in the summer. He transitioned to an 8:00 bed time about a month before preschool started (when he was 3) and he did fine. Babies schedules change all the time. If it is working for you now and both you and she are happy don't change it. Go with your instinct too. If she seems tired than maybe try an earlier bedtime if not try not to worry about it. Good luck.

In our experience, our baby girl wakes up early (around 6 usually) and she wakes up at that time whether we put her down at 7 or 8 or 9 or whenever! So, we originally had her bedtime at 8 and as soon as we realized that we moved it back to 7. She STILL wakes up at the same time and gets more sleep which means she is more happy in the morning. =) I think you should try and start putting her down earlier (8ish) and on the nights you have to feed her at 9:30, that's okay. We have church on Wednesday nights so my daughter didn't get that last feeding until we got home and it never messed her up. BUT, you have to do what works best for your family... I think she could be going to bed earlier, but if she seems to be getting enough sleep and you're okay with the current schedule, keep it like it is for a while longer. Schedules change so quickly anyway at this age. She should be able to sleep through the night starting at 8 PM though. My pedi told me 12 hour stretches without a feeding shouldn't be a problem around this age. If you see her starting to wake up, then you know she still needs those extra calories later in the night.

I think it all depends on the baby. My 6 month old has gone to bed at 7 p.m. since she was about 3-months-old, but she really worked herself into that. Do you feel that she's getting enough sleep or trying to go to bed earlier? I say go with your gut and if your gut tells you that you should move her bedtime earlier than do it. As far as what to do when you aren't there, perhaps you should try not putting her to sleep by breastfeeding her and establish another bedtime routine. If you would like to eventually have her go to sleep on her own then it's better to break that habit while she's still little because it will only get harder the older she gets.

skip the schedual. if what you are doing is working for you and your lo keep doing it. my almost 1yo just recently started going to bed at 615! and sleeping throught the night. up until then she was going to bed after 8 with a fight and waking atleast 3x for a bottle and breast. dont worry so much about when she is asleep by her schedual will change here pretty soon and you will wonder where that quiet time you had with her went. if she is happy dont rock the boat. lol gl

I think babies need to get enough sleep early on. My LO is also 5 mo old - she goes to bed at 7 pm...I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but the later they go to sleep, does not mean the later they wake up. Usually it is the opposite - if they are over-tired, it will be harder for them to fall asleep and they won't sleep as long or as well. My LO doesn't sleep through the night yet, but she is almost there...I can go through the night without feeding her sometimes (I wake her up before I go to bed around 11 or 12 to give her one last feeding sometimes) - other times I will feed her once around 2 or 3 am and that will get her to around 7 or 8 am. She will still wake up, but I can get her back to sleep with a paci or rubbing her tummy.
That is amazing you can feed her for an hour! My supply doesn't last that long.....if it did, maybe she wouldn't need a middle of the night feeding.....but once is not that bad. She is still little! :)
My LO is close to mommy too - so I always put her to bed (my husband usually doesn't feed her bottles either), but usually I stick to feeding her, then singing to her, rocking her, and she falls right asleep...if she has a hard time, sometimes I lay her down with a pacifier and a lovey and stroke her forehead so her eyes close and will lay her hands down so they aren't going crazy - I don't nurse her to sleep because I don't want her to be dependent on it...so, maybe on nights when you have time, try changing up her night time routine so she doesn't nurse to fall asleep, but only nurses to get fed and then try rocking her or singing to her and then putting her down. This takes a lot of patience because I will sometimes have to hold her hands or stroke her forehead for 10-20 minutes, but then she will fall asleep. I prefer not to let her CIO....but it has gotten so that some days she will just fall asleep on her own, and some days I will leave her in the crib and go brush my teeth and if she cries I will come back and give her a pacifier and then go wash my face, come back, etc....so she knows I am there, but she will eventually realize it's bedtime and go to sleep....
Once your baby isn't reliant on nursing, it will be easier for you to be a little more flexible with her schedule. Then maybe your husband can put her to sleep on the nights you have to work - and she can go to bed around 7-8...you can come home and give her an extra feeding before you go to bed if you want to cuddle, etc...and she should go back to sleep easily (just keep the lights off).
One more idea - see if she will let you feed her a bottle so she gets more used to it before your husband tries....so that way he can keep with a routine you have already put in place. Or, just put her to bed early on your nights off and go with the flow on your work nights - we have late church on Weds also and my LO does fine on those nights...however, I think you're right in trying to give her more sleep - a lot of people think their babies get enough sleep, but they actually need more than they're getting....
Good luck!