Wanting Earlier Bed Time for 5 Month Old

I know 9:30 might not be ideal, but it seems as though she has found a routine that is working for her. She's sleeping 10 to 12 hours at night, and that is more than I was able to get from my kids at that age. The time that she goes to bed is really not important (for her health). What's more important is the total number of hours of sleep she gets in a 24 hour period. I don't remember the recommendations for her age (I would guess 12 to 14 hours of total sleep), but I'm sure you can google that information.

If you really want to get her to bed sooner, the trade off is going to be an earlier start to your day. The advice I've heard is to begin by waking her up at a certain time each day. Once she gets used to a particular wake up time, she will naturally need an earlier bed time. My guess is that you might be looking at a 5 or 6 am wake up, but that could be something you're willing to do.

I was a SAHM until my youngest was 2 1/2. We needed to get up in time for my oldest to get to preschool, so there really wasn't any pressure to get the kids to bed much earlier than 9:30. When I went back to work and my oldest began kindergarten, I did need to work at adjusting their schedules. I did begin by waking them up earlier. It really only took a couple of days.

If you don't have a need to have her waking up earlier, I would probably leave it alone and make sure she continues to get as much sleep as she is getting now. Sounds very healthy to me.

I remember bedtimes/naptimes/nap lengths changing as baby's needs changed. I would just wait it out and it will level off in time.

Almost every one of my grand kids were like this. If they went to bed any sooner it basically was a nap to them. Then they were up all night.

She has her own biorhythm. You need to respect that to some extent. Working to make bedtime earlier will most likely switch her waking time by the same amount. So if she is getting up at 8am and you are putting her down at 9 now then expect her to wake at least the hour earlier you are planning to put her down. If she goes to bed early she will wake up at least that much earlier.

My son just gradually went to bed earlier and earlier on his own. I'd say go with what seems to be working for her. 9:30 is pretty great, at 5 months, we were at about 10:30. By 8-9 months he was going to bed about 8:30 and that has stayed pretty consistent (13 months old now). My son naps less and always has, we are lucky to get 2 naps in, normally the morning one is 1.5-2 hours and then another hour in the afternoon. As she gets bigger I would bet her naps will get shorter and she'll be ready for bed a little earlier.

Are you willing to let her whine it out? At 3 months I could tell a difference between my kids whining and crying. I didn't let them cry it out, but I did let them whine for a few minutes and it worked. My daughter who is now three and my 4 month old twins were all sleeping through the night and going to bed around 7:30 at 3 months old. They would maybe whine for a few minutes and then go to sleep. They would sleep from 7:30-7. I know it's not normal for kids to sleep this well so young, but I really think that by waiting a few minutes and not running to them, it really helped. Like I said they just whine, not cry. Also, I put the kids to bed awake. My kids are formula fed, so I know exactly how much they are eating, but they do have about 8 ozs before bed. As for during the day, they wake around 7, nap for 30-45 minutes around 9, and the go down for a 4 hour nap around 11:30. Sometimes they may nap again at 5 for 30-45 minutes. Do you swaddle or put on sleep sacks? My kids know that when the sleep sack goes on, it's time for bed. I use it at big nap time and bed time.

My boys have both always had a 9:30/10:00pm bedtime, and they've alway woken up between 7:00 and 8:00am. They are 6&9 years old now. It is their natural rythym, so why mess with it? Would you really rather have to get up at 5:00 or 6:00am?