A new mum says she’s baffled why other parents put their babies to bed in the early evening, after revealing her three-month-old is put to bed at midnight.
She says her little one sleeps for a full eight hours at night, as well as napping during the day.
“So I 100% appreciate that all kids are different but I’m constantly baffled at people putting their kids to bed at 6.30pm or thereabouts and then complaining they’re being woken up,” she said on Mumsnet. “Of course they’re waking up – they have been asleep for hours and they’re hungry.
“My three-month-old goes to bed with us (having had various naps throughout the day) around midnight and doesn’t wake until 8am. I appreciate I’m very lucky that he sleeps for the full eight hours, but if I put him to bed at 6pm he’d be up at 2am and wide awake for hours.”
The new mum says she works full time and takes the morning feeds while her partner is on maternity leave and takes care of their baby son during the day.
“Our tiredness extends to the fact that there’s a whole person to take care of on top of what we were doing before, and have no family or additional paid support, but not sleep deprivation.
“Obviously some people have other commitments (night shifts etc) and some kids just don’t sleep, but a lot of the new parents I know in similar circumstances to me seem to be at their wit’s end because, as far as I can tell, they’re putting their baby to bed too early! It often sounds like they’re forcing it too, like the baby doesn’t want to sleep then anyway. Confused!”
Other mums share their opinions
The comments raised the ire of mums, who responded with their own experiences.
“Just checking, you’re giving out parenting advice based on your experience of … three months?” commented one mum. “For what it’s worth my daughter goes up at 7pm for sleep at 8pm, but I wouldn’t be bold enough to suggest to anyone else that that’s the right way to do it…!!”
Another mum responded: “My kids always went to bed at 6/6.30pm until they were about six years old. They always slept through until 7am.”
And this mum explained that she believes a good sleep routine is helpful as babies get older.
“It’s because from three months you are supposed to give them a structured routine they can follow as they get older. We started putting DS to bed at 8pm from three months. Yes he woke frequently but as he got older it got easier and by five months he was sleeping from 8am-8pm with just one feed at midnight.”
What time do you put your babies to bed? Let us know in the comments below.
6:37 pm
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