For those of you who have late bedtimers, how do you do it? My almost 2.5 year old has always been a lower sleep needs kid, and since she turned 1, her bedtime has gradually shifted from 7 to now 9-9:30. She's usually up at 6:30, so I have to be up by 6 to get ready for the day, get her to daycare, etc. and if I'm not in bed myself by 10, I'm kind of a mess by morning. We've been putting her down by 8:15, and she's been playing in the crib until she falls asleep, so that we at least get a little bit of time to ourselves, but as she's getting older and closer to climbing out of the crib, I think we need to put her down closer to her actual bedtime to minimize all that activity, which means we're completely losing any adult time. Which I guess is a sacrifice to make, but I'm exhausted just thinking about it TBH. Figured that a morning person would end up with a night owl for a kid LOL
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@Mrs. Carrot: you say now you can put her down in her crib and she will play by herself. My lo is 3 and we put her into her room by 8pm. After that, she has to stay in her room. It's something we have had to work on to get her to stay in there but she knows she can play or read books, but she can't leave her room. That gives us the time we need at night.
I can't imagine putting her down and then going down myself. We need our alone time!
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@mediagirl: Do you keep an eye on her somehow? What time does she usually fall asleep? Do you keep a light on? I guess my worry about all that is that she'll just keep asking for us to come play with her and it'll be a ton of back and forth.
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Is she still napping? My son was high sleep needs, but I noticed when it was time to drop a nap, it would take him longer and longer to fall alseep.
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@Mrs. Carrot: she is typically asleep by 9. We had the monitor in there until it broke when she was around 2 years old. That way we could make sure she wasn't strangling herself with the curtains or anything. Yes, my mind goes there so I liked to keep an eye on her.
I will also sometimes peek in and just pray she's not looking towards the door when I do so to make sure she's okay.
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So, E doesn't have a late bedtime, but she does often go to sleep much later than we put her in her room. We "put her to bed" at 7:30 and more often than not, she gets up and plays in her room. It used to bother me, but you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink, you know? Sometimes she's up until 9pm playing. Last week, she was up at 10pm! I spy on her with the video monitor and shake my head
We latch the door so she has to stay in there. And now that we've been doing that for awhile (she did protest at first), she understands that once she's in there, she's in there, and that's that.
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@looch: She's always been like this (taking a while to fall asleep), just the bedtime itself has been moving. She is still napping, and seems to need it (we limit naps to 2 hours, and usually have to wake her. We've also have tried shorter naps but that actually seems to have an adverse effect on bedtime).
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@Mrs. Carrot: If she still needs the nap, then I'd keep it. I wonder if she feels like she's missing out on something when you're up and she's in her room? I know this is an issue with my son!
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I'm not sure I have an answer you'll like, because my night owl sleeps in. He tends to get up around 8/8:30am, but if he's up earlier, I send him back to bed. I'm a morning person and I get most of my "quiet" time early! As to hanging out with my husband, we've just adapted to hanging out with LO. Having a sidekick at night is mostly only an issue if there's an unsuitable film we want to see, but we don't run into that too often, so it's not a huge issue. He understands that if he wants to hang out with us after dinner in the evening, he'll either be playing on his own or doing what we're doing--usually reading or taking a walk.
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We have this issue. When my LO naps (even only for an hour) he doesn't go to sleep til 9/930 and sleeps til 630. It definitely is tough losing adult time in the evening. On no nap days he is asleep by 730, which is much preferable!
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My son's bed time crept later and later (and he took forever to fall asleep) until he let go of the nap at 33 months (3 months shy of 3). Prior to that, he would sleep like 9-7 or 9:30-7 (in bed at 8 or 8:30) and take a 2 hour nap. When we cut the nap he started going to bed at 8 or 8:30 and sleeps until 7 or sometimes 7:30.
Now, when he has a nap (in the car) even if it's 45 mins he sleeps 9-6:30.
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DS1 is 3 and goes to bed at about 10, which is my bedtime. He naps two hours at school. And little brother has been pushing it this late often too. So yes you miss adult time at night. Nothing I can do about it really. I can try for earlier but it's not happening and it's just frustrating.
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We put her down at 730/800 and it is 830/900 before she falls asleep. If we put her down earlier, it is still 830ish before she goes to sleep. No matter how tired she is. She wants her door cracked open. So she we told her if she stays in her bed (queen) and isn't crying, the door stays open. But if she gets up to get a book, or cries I don't wanna go nite nite, we close it.
It is really frustrating she won't go to sleep sooner, especially when I know she is tired, but I am trying to accept I can't force her to go to sleep.
I will also sometimes peek in and just pray she's not looking towards the door when I do so to make sure she's okay.
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