Help for Later Bedtime for 7 Month Old

My son is 7months and he used to nap when i got him home from day care. I told his day care lady not to let him nap anytime after 2:30 3 because he wasnt really sleeping that well. Ever since then i have been feeding him jar food around 6 to some what hold him for a bit (unless he is extremely hungry)then an 8ounce bottle around 8 or 8:30 and he is out til about 6 unless someone is loud and wakes him up. For the most part it has worked pretty well..... Good Luck!

R.,

If she likes her baths, maybe a warm evening bath would keep her awake but yet soothing enough to sleep afterwards.

Hi R.,

How many naps does your daughter sleep? My 9 month old sleeps 3 naps, morning, early afternoon and early evening (5:30 - 6:15). You might want to wake her up from her sleep next time and give her her dinner at that time. That's what I do. My little one goes to sleep at 8pm and sleeps till 6:30 - 7am.

good luck.

V.

Hi R.,
Wow, someone else out there who has early risers! Glad to meet ya. :-) I will say Amy H's post is pretty accurate from my experience. BOTH my girls would do whatever necessary to wake me as early as possible. I found that pushing the time for bed back slowly helped tremendously. Another option I tried was shortening one of the two naps my daughter took.

About the nighttime feeding, something that helped me was giving some form of a warm solid right before bed time ie: oats, or fruit, along with a nice nursing session. It seemed to relax them, and fill them enough to sleep a little longer. I also was told that between 4 and 6 months (depending on the child) the nighttime feedings can go. They should be nourished enough to make it through the night. The easiest way I found to stretch the periods out between nursing is similar to the bed time trick. When they wake for mid-night feedings wait a few mins more each time before you nurse, until she begins to wake in the morning at the time you want. Sounded crazy, but my Dr. knew what she was talking about. Good luck!

Hi mom, Being that she is only 7 months when she gets up in the morning do your regular routine but at about 12-1pm let her take an hour nap so when she wakes up you have the rest of the day to roll around on the floor or whatever just to keep her busy until dinner time. Then after dinner give her a bath she should be out for the count. Being that you are just starting out with this she may wake up but give it about a week of the same routine. GOOD LUCK :)

Well...you're in luck. Daylight Savings Time begins this Sunday. :-) If you still want more than an hour added, I would start in 15 minute increments, adding 15 minutes every week until you get her on the schedule that works best.
As far as the "night feeding", my doctor told me that at 6 months old they should be sleeping through the night. Good Luck!

My son is 9 1/2 months & I have a daughter who is 5 years old. When we had the same trouble with our son, we tried to find ways to stimulate him so he wouldn't fall asleep until 8pm. What I found helped is letting him nap for about 30 min. after dinner (at about 6pm). Of course, the 5 yr old sometimes over-stimulates him & we now have trouble getting him to bed on time. The 15-min increments worked with our daughter.
Sleeping in later might be helped with room-darkening shades (the sun shines into my son's room in the morning.
As for the night time feeding, don't let her get into the habit of expecting the feeding & needing it to get back to sleep. What we did with both of ours is start just changing the diaper, cuddling for a very short period of time & put them down again. Let her cry for awhile, see if she falls asleep. If she won't go to sleep, try feeding her a little less. It seemed my son realized he would have to work hard to get something to eat, and he was either too tired or it wasn't worth it. Now he only wakes up because of diaper overflow.
Hope something here helps - as they say, what works for one, doesn't necessarily work for another.

While I was attempting to get my 7 month old on a more regular schedule for sleep I started using the TV... I know that isn't the most stimulating distraction but it did keep him interested just long enough to get him to bed a little later and morning was a bit brighter if you know what I mean! He gets about an hour (not all at once) of TV a day while he's in his jumperoo, just so I can get some house work done. But two months ago when he was doing the same kind of thing I put on a kiddo movie that he seemed to really like and it kept him up for a nother hour, enough time to get him wakeing a little later. Good luck with the night time feedings, I have been really blessed and was given a great sleeper!

You could try pushing the routine back 15 minutes each night until she goes to sleep at the time you'd like. My daughter (now 2) was the same way and I tried putting her to bed 15 minutes later for 3 nights and then 15 min later the next 3 nights etc. Now she goes to bed at 7:00 - 7:30 and sleeps a solid 12 hrs.

Good luck!

My kids wake up before the rooster also! My youngest will be 2 next month. He was going to bed at 6pm for the longest time and then would wake up around 5. Slowly I would push his naps back and as I pushed his naps back I would also push bedtime back. He now goes to bed around 7 or 7:30 but I'm sorry to say, he's still up by 5:30.

R.,

I have had three children and they range from age 22 to 12.
I woul suggest that you try to make sure you spend time actively playing with her to keep her awake longer and try to maybe give her a snack insted of feeding her so early in the evening. Try to hold off dinner until around 6pm and then play a little more. Atfter she is tired, give her a nice warm bath, and end the day with a bottle or last feeding. The bath will help relax her and filling her tummy will help her sleep. Remember, children love routine so do this for a few days and see if it works before you decide. I always got to sleep through the night. Good Luck,

D. M.