[I'm Batman]

I do a later bedtime 7.30 to 8, because I dont want to get out of bed at 6am every morning.

[~shannon~]

Why does it have to be a 7 pm bedtime? Arbitrary hour, plucked out of thin air by "childcare experts".

Agree! If my children (aged 6 and 2) went to bed at 7pm they would never see their father who often doesn't get home until that time (plus they absolutely love watching Masterchef! LOL!). Bedtime is 8pm in our house and that suits us fine. The kids still get ample sleep as they don't wake up till after 7am. I'd hate it if they woke at 6am or earlier.
My two-year-old also has a nap at around 1pm every day for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

[MrsNorthman]

DD3 started 7pm at 14 weeks with ease, mostly because after we have done dinner, bathtime etc for all of them and that's when DD1 and 2 go to bed (though they read and don't go straight to sleep then).

12 hours sleep has always been what they like overnight with the eldest two now getting 11.5hrs.

[PurpleNess]

Just popping into say that I'd suggest once DS is a bit older - toddler etc then his bed time will be later, more like 8pm so we can have dinner as a family & DH can spend more time with him after work. But for now at this age (7.5 months) it works well.

[ReginaGeorge]

DS was always a late to sleep kind of kid. 9pm was the earliest I'd get him down, but then he slept until 8/9am with only one or two wake ups from around 12 months old. I hope number two if they ever eventuate sleeps a little better. It's a very hard slog!

[DeeofAdelaide]

From the beginning for us. The minute he came home from hospital he joined us at the table at dinner time, then bath, story, bed with his sister. I did it straight from hospital with her too.

Even in those early days when he was waking two hourly, every feed/settle after 6pm was done in the dark etc.

From around 15 weeks he started sleeping 6.45 - 6.45 like his sister.

I think you make a bedtime routine that fits with your current one for 7pm and treat any wakes/resettles after that as 'night wakes'.

[Pup-pup]

We had this with my DD1. We were doing the bath, feed, cuddle, bed routine at about 9pm. Then once she slept through, we brought it back 30mins a night. It didn't take long before it was 7pm.
With DD2 I actually started with 7pm, she slept 7-3am from a very early age. It actually worked for me because I got that down time from 7pm (having two kids) every night. Then I'd feed her at 3am and she'd go back to sleep for a few more hours. Gradually she started waking later, between 6-8am.

[bjk76]

DS actually chose a 1am bedtime for a while! It wasn't a big deal for us, as I'd just sleep when he slept. The only way I got him to sleep earlier was to open the blinds in his bedroom and the light woke him up earlier, so he went to sleep earlier.

Now, as a toddler, his bedtime is around 8.30pm (unless teething), which is pretty good for us, as we can eat dinner together as a family and then I still get a couple of babyfree hours before I go to bed.

He has never been consistent enough in his bedtime and morning wake ups to be able to do the 'bring his bedtime back by 15 min' that works for other babies.

[cluckylollie]

At about 8 weeks we started putting DS into his cradle in our room after the feed closest to 7pm. Any waking after that time we treated as a night wake, feed/nappy change and straight back to bed.

[Unatheowl]

I just brought it earlier and earlier over time, it just sort of happened but by 6 months both of my girls were going to bed at 6pm. At 20 months DD2 still goes at 6pm, and DD1 at 3.5 is a 7pm girl now.

I did this too. Dd used to settle at around 10pm when she was a newborn so I would always bath her to relax her before bed, when I knew she was tired. When she was used to it, I then brought the bath time forward by 15 mins at a time. By then, she was used the bath as a cue for bed and would expect her feed and bed right after. I continued to move it forward until 7pm. Sorry I don't recall what age she was at when we achieved this. Maybe 4 months?