Yes, it's possible to have a baby that has a late bedtime and wakes up late

@oldguy No way out unfortunately. I just had to stick it out as it was a phase. He’s now almost 3 and sleeps 11/12 hours from around 7pm - 6.30am or some kind of variation of that (sometimes has a nap in the day so give or take on that time frame). Good luck, it won’t be forever!
 
@oldguy No worries. I’d always just say it’s about trial and error. I’ve sometimes just gone with the flow of what mine wants to do and see what works. If it doesn’t work I’ll just revert back to the ‘old routine’ until they’re ready!
 
@kitsoni Yup. My oldest has always been a nightowl that sleeps in. She’s 2.5 now and slept in till 9 today. Younger one though is definitely and early bird. She likes to be asleep by 8 at the latest and happily wakes up to play around 7. I sort of like the staggered schedule because I make special time at night with oldest and watch the sunrise with the baby.
 
@kitsoni I wish I saw this post two weeks ago. My husband and I have to be at work at 7:30am. Ideally we wanted her to wake up at 6:15am. She did would go to bed at 6pm and wake up at 5am. I’m like no friend! I wanted to wake up at 5am so I can get some time in before work. Sites and people kept saying put her to bed earlier but...6pm is already way too early. Sure enough the latest she will last is 7pm before asking to be put to bed...now we wake her. I spent weeks before switching. 🤦🏼‍♀️
 
@kitsoni Mine never woke up early. I have to fight to keep her bedtime before 11, she'll stay up later and sleep in later if I let her.

She comes from a long line of night owls on both sides, I think she's ours.
 
@kitsoni Yes! Totally do what works for your lifestyle! Our family is the opposite, super early shifted schedule usually starting around 330-430am and we still got tons of push back about it. My MIL will even go grab her after we've said we put her down for the night since she thinks it is too early, then of course we end up with an overly tired, super cranky baby the next day since she still has to be up and ready for daycare before we head to work. Luckily our pediatrician is totally on board and says as long as baby is getting enough total hours of overnight sleep it doesn't really matter when they start.
 
@kitsoni This is us too! Bed time is between 830 and 9. Up between 745 and 8am. She is still up once at "night" (430am). I nurse her and she sleeps until 8 like clock work.
 
@kitsoni Your post made me feel a lot better about my 2 month old's bedtime of 11:30/midnight that she pretty much naturally settled into. She just won't go down before then. I kept reading about 7-8pm being an optimal bedtime, so I wondered if I should be taking steps to get my daughter to bed at that time. However, she goes down at 11:30/midnight and sleeps through to 6/7am, and then goes down again for another 2-3 hours after being fed. I go back to bed when she goes back to bed in the morning, and I usually feel pretty sufficiently well-rested.

I'd rather her sleep these hours than something like 7pm-1/2am and then through 5-6am. That would be rough on me as the hours I slept pre-baby were about midnight to 8/9am anyway!
 
@kitsoni I used to live in a Latin American country and basically every single family with young babies like ours had around a 10-11 bedtime and a 9-10 wake up. We weren't used to that schedule so we were happy with early bed and early wake up.

I think it depends on the rhythm of the household. But it is really hard to find any support for it from a US search in English. (When I lived abroad, the search engines found it no problem.)
 
@kitsoni I think it’s more hardwired for some kids than others. When my son was 9-10 months old, we took him to visit family, a 9-hour time difference. We figured as long as we were having to deal with jet lag and adjust him to the new time zone, we’d set his bedtime a bit later, to better match the lifestyle where we were (and so we wouldn’t have to shift back a whole 9 hours when we got home). We aimed for 9pm. And it worked! Until, over the last week of our trip, he started ever so slowly waking earlier and absolutely needing to go to sleep earlier, shifting towards 8. We had never set his bedtime at home, it was just based on when he would give us his longest sleep. At 2 he goes down 6:45-7 and wakes at, ugh, 5:30, but he doesn’t sleep later if we put him to bed later, and we need some toddler-free time in the evenings, so... I guess this is my life now?
 
@kitsoni Thank you for saying this. Even on this sub there’s quite a few people that insist there’s no other way. I’ve even seen comments equating not putting baby to bed by 8 to being neglect! My husband works long hours 6 days a week. If I put my son to bed before 10 my husband would never see our son. He gets plenty of sleep on our schedule so I don’t see the issue. I myself went to bed late my entire life and it hasn’t been a problem. Not just that but I feel very uncomfortable doing anything with my son on a monitor. He takes his naps in the living room and we go to bed at the same time together each night. I wouldn’t want him out of my sight until he’s much older and at that point we can start to adjust his sleep schedule if needed. School doesn’t start until age 6 in my country and my husband’s job will get less busy in the coming years as well.
 
@katrina2017 Wish I knew. Luck I think. Now he’s over a year older and has gone through a few regressions, so it came around for us eventually lol. Hang in there, you’re doing great!
 

Similar threads

Back
Top