Set bedtime? 6mo

[Kiwi_one]

Hi ladies,

Eleven days into PUPD overnight to rid ourselves of the props, it's still taking 40min or so to get DD down at bedtime. With DD1, it turned out to be an A-time issue (she needed far less prior to bed than she did during the day). So I've been keeping basic tabs of her times and experimenting a bit with less, more, but we haven't struck gold. 3:15 seems to be UT and 4hr seems to be OT but it's quite hard to tell.

So I was wondering, how many of you know of set BTs working? It'd be freeing to just pick a time and have her in bed then every night but I don't want to put her through trying if it's not going to work.

Her EASY today is reasonably typical:

Up 6:20
S 9:45-11:30
S 2:45-4:20

[becj86]

We have a set BT of 7pm. DS (7MO) gets there at 7pm +/- 10mins and does great. We have been doing that reasonably successfully from day one though...

[amayzie]

we're the same- 7pm not a minute earlier not a minute later... (almost). e had a bit of trouble as we needed to drop the cat nap- but now we;'re down to 2 naps he's pretty much back to 7pm again. The rest of the day we run on A times, but BT has always been set.

[Kiwi_one]

Sounds like we might have to try set BT next time round! Daytime sleep training has been so easy with our girls in comparison with figuring out BT.

Last night went pretty well at 3:40 A time. She was asleep by 8 after only a few minutes of grizzling. So we might be onto something with that A time but if it proves to be a fluke, we might give a set time a go.

[amayzie]

Mine has always been able to manage a big A time at the end of the day.. Could you try setting BT now? I don't really know much about it.. but could you perhaps try moving it forward by 10 or so minutes every few nights? Might not work as it doesn't sound like you have a consistent time anyway...

[Kiwi_one]

We don't, no; it really would be a case of picking a time and getting her used to that.

DD1 was spirited and required very exact A times so a set bedtime would be entirely new territory to me.

[Khalam's Mama]

B is textbook and has been going to bed at 7pm since 3mo. It wasn't so much th't i set it more that he got tired then no matter how long he was up and i just went with his cues.

[amayzie]

Yeah- same with us... just one day it happened and that's how it stayed!! But i think it has essentially BECOME a set bed time! Of course the night i did the post about him going down at 7pm was a night when he was a bit of a rascal for daddy and didn't go down till 20 past!! But that's heaps better than 9 or something!!

[ZacsMumme]

we always had a BT of 7+\- 15 mins. It is now later with Z being on 1 nap, but if your days are relatively stable then I think this works well. Z is touchy/spirited too so I was surprised when between 6-12 months he practically dove for his bed at this time of evening even if he had a longer nap etc.