Lesson learned: Don't deviate from schedule

[karinothing]

When DS was five months or so we attempted to stay out past his bedtime and it was an utter disaster.

Now at nine months we decided to try again. He did not melt down, which was good. We put him down abouter an hour later than normal and he went down easily so I thought all was good but then...

He was up four times between 8 and 1130. Then he was up from 1130 - 115 (never should have taught him how to stand ha ha). Then he was up at 430. Then up for the day at 530. So essentially he (and I) had about 4 hours of sleep. At least he took a two hour nap at daycare.

He will never go to bed late again.

[pierogigirl]

Some kids don't handle deviations well. I keep both kids on a schedule. DS1, almost 3, could probably handle a change but DS2, 7 mos, is not sleeping through the night and I'm scared to do anything that might make it worse. Sleep rocks, kids, why don't you realize this?

[Deleted]

LOL, I hear you! Some friends of ours really wanted us to have dinner with them (they live an hour away). I had to be the bad guy with DH and say no. DS's bedtime routine starts at about 7:45, there's no way we could have dinner and drive home before then. So they're coming to us, which I still think will be a disaster.

[Deleted]

Yeah, DH seems to be of the opinion that if DS goes to bed later, he'll get up later, right?

No. He'll get up at the same damn time and be cranky all day. We had a busy weekend and he went to bed an hour or so late both nights, and it really was not good. We should have got a sitter.

[mrshandy]

It took us a while before we would stay up later with DS.

Maybe around 18-20 months we would attempt maybe 30 minutes to an hour past bed time.

Sometimes if we were going to a gathering at a friend's place later in the evening, we would bring his PJs and he would fall asleep in the car on the way home. This would give us maximum time out so we didn't have to race home for bed time.

[oregonpachey]

We kept DS#1 (2.5 years old) later this weekend as a special treat to see some fireworks. I warned DH that this would be a disaster and I was right.

He cried in the car almost the entire way home, and he slept until his regular time. It sucked. He was crabby all day until he took his afternoon nap.

[dcrunnergirl]

Jul 23, 2012 12:43:34 GMT -5 mrshandy said:

It took us a while before we would stay up later with DS.

Maybe around 18-20 months we would attempt maybe 30 minutes to an hour past bed time.

Sometimes if we were going to a gathering at a friend's place later in the evening, we would bring his PJs and he would fall asleep in the car on the way home. This would give us maximum time out so we didn't have to race home for bed time.

Ditto all of this. It wasn't until recently that we've been able to keep them up 30-60 minutes past bedtime, and it only really works if they get really worn out during that extra time so they sleep well all night long.

[kittycatlove]

Yeah we learned the hard way too. It stinks because we're always getting the guilts from friends (let him skip his nap, he'll be fine etc). Easy for them to say since they don't have a toddler.

[mrssandro]

I remember those days. 9:00 is the latest I can put DD to bed with out everything getting out of whack.