Good Hour for 7 Month Old to Go to Bed...

For that age, this is too early (not too late) for them to be going to bed. Try keeping him up later, swaddle him when you put him to bed or if he gets too fussy. The longer he is awake at night, the later he will sleep in. Wishing you the best.

He may be crying because he is not ready to go to bed yet. I would try to keep him up as long as possible and perhaps he will do what he does at nap time and just fall asleep. You may want to start his routine later to keep him up later.

i have three kids my youngest is 7 months old she goes down for bed between 7 and 8 o clock. I can't give an exact time because we use a routine more then watch the clock. we usually eat dinner between 5 and 530. Then since i have two older children we go outside to play from after dinner till 645 to7 then the baby gets a bath then her 3 year old sister then her 6 year old brother. after bath they all get lotion rubbed on them and put on there jammies. then i put the 3 year old down with a story, then i lay down the baby when her sister is almost asleep by 8. (3 year old like to play with the baby so i have to put her down first). then i tuck my son into bed who gets to watch one tv show before bed at 830. my baby sleeps until 630 to 730 every morning. but i wake up at 5 to be alone every morning so with her being up that early doesn't bother me and the other two usually wake her up if she doesnt' get up first.

I want to say that I agree with the mom who said that she puts her kids to bed when they are tired at about 7pm.
I also read and followed the Healthy sleep habits, Happy Child book! Read it. It is awesome and explains why you should put your kids to bed between 6-8 pm not later.

I also agree with the mom who mentioned to make a bedtime routine. I also read to them, give a bath, put music on and give them a bottle. If they cry after I put them down, I ignore it, unless they cry for more than an hour.
They will eventually fall asleep, believe me. I have twins and it worked in 3 days for both of them...
good luck and I suggest that book... It is a sleep bible..

At his age, he should be sleeping for about 11 hours at night with two daytime naps. So, if you are putting him to bed at 7:15, he should be waking up around 6:15. Since you said he cries and thus is not falling asleep right away, he is right on target to be waking up at 6:30 or 7:00.

I think 6:30 is a little early for bedtime unless you need to get him up for daycare or something around 5:30. I think most kids this age go to bed between 7:00 and 8:00. I've always put my girls to bed around 9:00, and they wake up between 7:00 and 8:00. This is later, but it works for us since my husband works later. By the time we have dinner, play, and do our bath and bedtime routines, it is 9:00.

Do you think your son is crying because he is too tired or not tired enough? If he is too tired, I would try to push his naps later in the day, so he does not melt down in the evenings. If he is not tired enough, make the naps earlier or shorten them. It sounds like you have a nice, relaxing bedtime routine. That helps too. I always used a pacifier at bedtime for my little ones. It was a big comfort and helped them fall asleep. We also use a white noise machine. It is comforting and blocks out other noises in the house.

For sleep issues, our pediatrician recommends the Ferber book. I haven't read it yet, but I know there are sleep schedules in there. Since he sleeps well at nap time, I think you should just try tinkering with his naps until you get him sleepy at the right times. Good luck!

Hi M.,

Here is my son's schedule. He's been on this since he was four-five months old. He is now 14 months old and it has worked well for us. Hope this helps. Good Luck!

B.

Liam’s Schedule

730 am ☺ wake up & breastfeed

800 am breakfast with fruit

900 am Playtime

930 am Snack with water or milk

1000 am ☺ Nap

1100 am Nap

1200 pm Nap

1230 pm ☺ Wake-up, lunch with milk

100 pm playtime

200 pm Sign Language video

230 pm playtime

330 pm ☺ Snack with water or milk

400 pm Nap

500 pm Nap

530 pm ☺ Wake-up, dinner with milk

600 pm playtime

700 pm playtime

730 pm cereal with fruit

800 pm Read (at least three stories) then get ready for bed. PJs and clean diaper
830 pm Bedtime ( turn on nitelite, hit the sleep button for 90 minutes, turn off lite, &
tuck Liam into bed with Harvick bear & kisses for both. Give & tell him ‘go to sleep’ sign

Hello M.,
I am first time mom as well..full time working..My son is now 1.5year old. We actually established evening routine early on. We start at 8pm,give him bath,after that comes bottle and me shashing him to sleep.Works perfectly...when his times comes he is ready. When he was just few month old he used to take 2 naps during the day as well..going to bed at 8pm and waking up around 6:30-7am. Nowadays he is taking only 1 nap during day (12pm-3ish pm) and than he sleeps from 8pm to 7:30am-8am. So my advice would be try to do some sort of routine every day.Good luck.

Your baby might be ready to cut out the morning nap and take a longer one in the afternoon. With my daughter, I shortened the morning nap by about 15 min. every few days, lengthened the afternoon one by the same amount, and pushed bedtime back by about 15 min at the same pace. Within a few weeks, she was going to bed at 8:30, getting up at 8, and taking a 3 hour afternoon nap. It might work, might not, but it might be worth a try.

It is definitely so hard. I relate but you just have to push through and it gets better. My daughter is 2 now and up until a few months ago she went to bed at 6:30. Now she goes to bed at 8pm and does fine. She just never had the stamina until now and I would rather rush in the evening than have her scream because she was overtired. One thing that helped is that I always cook dinner during her nap time so that is ready. My husband and I also got into a great tag team routine.

hello there,
i am one of those bad mommies that put thier kid to bed with a bottle...lol..i dont recommend it..but it works..lol...i always give my daughter a bottle in her crib..and sometimes she falls asleep...what am i to do??wake her!!..lol..my daughter is nine months old...she wakes up tween 6-7 in the morning...and goes to bed tween 8-9 at night..she takes two-three naps a day for one to two hours at a time..and i go by her schedule...i dont have a set time...theres one in the morning and one or two in the afternoon...and sometimes even one in early evening..depending on what we have going on during the day...i will admit i have an awesome sleeper...but if it makes you feel any better..i deserve it...lol..cause my son(who is now 4)wouldnt sleep more than 20 minutes a time at naps...wouldnt nap at all by 2 years old...and didnt sleep through the night till he was three..thats alot of sleep deprivation for mommy..lol...and now he is starting to sleepwalk..i cant win ..i love my little guy to death but he was not an easy baby, or toddler, or even preschooler..lol..so with my daughter, i am very much appreciative of her willingness to sleep..lol...take care..good luck...sorry if i wasnt much help..R.

Hi, I am a first time mother and my daughter just turned one on Monday. I don't know if this will help but it is worth a shot. My husband and I have the not so normal working hours, he is a manager that has a different schedule everyday and I drive 2 hours one way to work everyday. With my daughter I tired to get her on a sleeping schedule, but it was to hard. She didn't want to go to bed early some nights and other nights she would go to bed earlier than normal. She is down to one nap a day that last an hour to 3 hours. I let her decided when it is bed time as long as it is before 9p.m. and I deceided when it is nap time. No matter what time she goes to bed she wakes up around 7:30 unless we have to wake her earlier. So what I am trying to say is maybe you should try to let your son go to bed when he wants (as long as it is not to late) and adjust your sleeping time to his. I don't want you to think my daughter gets her way because there is sometimes she goes to bed screaming because she is not tried and it is 9 p.m. anyway see if that works for you.

C.

M.,

I would definitly get him into a routine. When my son was around that age (an actually, we still do it, just later) we used to start bedtime routine around 7. He would get a bath, then I would read to him while I rocked him in a dark room (just his nightlight and mobile...he had one that projected on the ceiling...on). I played soft music in the background while we read and rocked. By this point he wasn't really doing the bottle thing too much anymore at night. After the book we would rock a little while and I would sing to him along with the music. I always made sure the he didn't fall entirely asleep. Once we rocked for a little bit, I laid him down and left the room. His cd player had a repeat button, so I would leave the music on all night for him (it helped me sleep too). He was usually out by 8 and he got up around 6:30 (just before I left for work). During the day he napped at 10, for about an hour, and at 1, for about 2-3 hours.

Jenn

I'm a first time Mom to an 11 mo old and to be honest I basically just pay attention to what worked for him and went with when he seemed tired. He is one of those babies that goes to bed around 6:30 and I'd actually wish it would be a little later. On the days I work I find I have no time with him when I get home before bed which I don't prefer. I have even tried to push his bedtime later and it never seems to work. He normally goes down around 6:30, at the very latest 7pm. Then he wakes usually around 6, nurses and goes back to sleep for another hour or so. When I've tried pushing his bedtime later, he inevitably wakes up EARLIER than normal say around 4am, so I take it he's trying to tell me something :). He also still takes a morning nap usually a couple hours after he wakes in the morning and then an afternoon nap between 2-3. I've also read the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book, which is a really great book for problem sleepers, but my son was always a pretty good sleeper and when I followed his cues, he would go down without a problem. Your son may be crying because he's not ready to go to sleep. I never was able to let my son cry it out for too long, so I just learned what worked for him and try to keep him on "his" schedule. I know there may be other women that could give some insight into ways to adjust your child's schedule, however I just found that I wasn't able to do that, so I just go with the schedule that works for him. Hope this helps and good luck!

Hi M.,
My son is 8 mo. old and on a schedule that sounds similar to your son. However, he doesn't go to bed until around 8:30 or 9. We started this because my husband works late,but now we really like it because he gets to eat dinner at the table with us and there isn't that crazy rush in the early evening. We bring him upstairs around 8:30, do bath (on the nights he gets on 2-3 times a week) then change to pj's and do a bedtime bottle. After that he goes in his crib and cries for a few minutes (about 5 min?) before falling asleep. He wakes up between 7 and 8 in the morning. Hope this helps you a little bit!

I also have a 7 month old which is my second son. My son gets up at 7ish am feeds, goes back to sleep or is pretty quiet until 8ish am. Gets up, eats breakfast at 9ish am, first nap at 9.30ish am and second at 2ish pm. He just cut out his later nap around 6ish pm. Since doing that he goes to bed at 8pm. He usually cries but him being my second, the crying doesn't bother me. Why do you want your son to have that schedule? When he was cutting his first teeth, he cried a lot more, so Tyenol was part of the night night routine. My experience is my kids never sleep exactly how I wanted them too, either not at the right times or too little or whatever. Just as long as they are getting enough sleep and are happy and healty, I am happy. And to answer your question, no I haven't heard of anyone putting down their infant that early. Maybe 7pm but then knowing they would get up earlier. Another suggestion that helped with our naps and to make them longer was I started supplementing with a bottle after breast feeding. That would top him off and help him sleep longer and sounder. Good luck!

Hi,

My son has been going down between 6:15 & 6:30 since he was 5 months (he's 9 months now). He is up at 6/6:30am (which I also wish was 8) and goes back down whenever he's tired, usually between 8 and 9 but sometimes earlier than that. This nap is never over an hour. Then he goes down after his lunch/bath/bottle routine around 12. He sleeps till 2 or 3 then by 6:00 he is ready for bed. I found that the bath then bottle routine really winds him down for sleep and thats probably why his early nap is so unpredictable.

I followed the Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Baby book and he did cry for a bit in the very beginning but mostly I followed his lead - I never put him down until I was sure he was tired and needed sleep. On occasion, like if we get off schedule for a few days, he will cry/whine for a bit but thats usually only that day and the next day he will be right back on schedule.

Ultimately, you know what's right and remember to listen to your child. He might be like my son and no matter what time he goes down he will rise early! So you might wanna try getting to bed much earlier... Good Luck!

why on earth would you want to put a baby to bed at 6 or 7? babys get older and stay awake more. thats how they learn to do things, he crys because he is not ready to go to bed. some babys do go to bed around 8 and sleep all night but get up real early. you said you want him to sleep later, so put him to sleep later. if he is taking 2 naps a day that is good, so he wont be ready for bed at 7. take him outside for a walk in the evenings, the weathers nice it will be good for him and you.

then bring him around 8 and give him a bath, dont rush it, dont get stressed, babys feel your stress, and react to it. fresh air almost always knocks a baby out, shot for a bed time about 8:30-9:00 with 8:30 the start of quiet time, no loud t.vs, no phone, no one coming in to talk to you, just you and him, quiet time after his bath, and he might be out by 9. and the later he goes to bed at night, as a rule, the later he sleeps in in the moring.

my 1st baby slept from 9-9 starting from about 8 months old. however baby 2, goes to bed at 11- and sleeps until 9 or 10. and nothing i do can change it. shes just differnt, and she almost never takes a nap. so i live with it. when i want alone time at 4 yrs old she understands, i tell het i was with you all day, if you want to stay up, thats fine, but you do stay in your bed and no playing around with the dogs and watch your shows, and this buys me some alone time. yeah its only an hour or so, but any time a mom gets to herself is worth it.