Has anyone tried to move DC's bedtime to a later time?

DH was talking about doing this. Right now, DS goes down at 7 and gets up between 5:30 and 6:30 for the day usually. Someone told him we just needed to keep him up - I really don't think it would work because he turns into quite a miserable kid but, I was wondering if anyone was successful in doing this.

I don't get home until 6:15 on a good day and DS doesn't need to get up early during the week most days (maybe 1x a week by 7am) so it would be nice if he made it until 8pm.

Message edited 8/30/2010 2:13:25 PM.

Re: Has anyone tried to move DS' bedtime to a later time?

If you were to adjust his BT to a later time, you have to do it gradually, little by little. I would move BT about 15 min later every few days until you get it to 8pm. I wouldn't do BT later than that b/c babies need 11 hrs of sleep or so.... You might still have an early WU time, and if that's the case, go back to an early BT.

Re: Has anyone tried to move DS' bedtime to a later time?

That has never worked with DS. If we are up later he still gets up the same time, or earlier.

The only time he sleeps in a little is if he wakes in the middle of the night.

Re: Has anyone tried to move DS' bedtime to a later time?

We did. DS was going to bed around 7:30 (occassionally a little later) but then he started to want to go to bed around 7:00. The problem was that we barely saw him when he got home from work and he was up around 5:00 - 5:30 AM.

What we did was we gradually pushed his bedtime back by 15 minutes for a few days, then another 15 minutes until we got to 8:00. The first day or 2 we tried, he still got up at his usual time. Then he started to wake-up later.

But what we also had to do was make sure he got an extra nap (usually 30 - 45 minutes) during the late afternoon so he could make it untl 8:00. He now goes to bed around 8:00 and usually is up between 6:00 and 6:30 - which is still early but much better!

He was about 5 months old when we did this and he is now 6.5 months old.

HTH!

Re: Has anyone tried to move DC's bedtime to a later time?

Thanks for your replies!

We'll see what happens - we're definitely going to follow his cues and we'll make sure he gets enough sleep - he definitely lets you know when he's tired!

It just would be nice to spend time with him after work and to be able to stay out later. He's stayed up late on days when he does take that late nap but, he's been fighting it.