Should I push them to stay asleep?

Right now my 5 1/2 month old girls fall asleep around 8pm, and on a good night, they don't cry until 5am. They drink about half to all of their bottle, and then go right back to sleep in their swings til around 8:30 or even 9. This allows me to go back to sleep as well! Does anyone have a schedule like this... or should I be someone forcing them to sleep longer...then getting up to eat and STAY awake at around 7ish (this is all just a guess). Just wondering if I should be eliminating that feeding and pushing them to go a tad longer. I don't know. They nap pretty good on most days. Some days are way better than others...they aren't super long nappers.

 

I'm not sure if that would work - at least it never did for me!

One of my girls always insisted (until fairly recently) on waking up between 5 and 5:30. No ignoring or feeding more at bedtime ever did anything to change it. She FINALLY started sleeping until 6-6:30 (maybe around 9 months?), which is heavenly. (I really can't push it much further than that, because unfortunately, we all have to be up at 6am on weekdays to get out of the house for work, and messing with the schedule on weekends screws up naps which makes for cranky babies)

 

We did that for a long time, except my babes went down at 10pm, up about 7am for a bottle then back to bed until about 10am. If it works for them, and works for your schedule, then I wouldn't worry about it! They'll eventually sleep longer hopefully

 

I think whatever works for you is perfectly fine. Especially if it means that you are getting some good sleep yourself, that is so important!

 

my boys don't start their long sleep period till about midnight when they fall asleep around that time they will sleep till about 9 then I will feed them and they go back to sleep till around 12 noon how can i get them to go to sleep earlier and sleep the same amount of time???

 

8pm till 5am? 9 hours at their age is FANTASTIC! I wouldnt push them. Id be grateful for what they are giving you
Stick with the feed a while and see if they end up dropping it on their own.

 

I completely agree. I was just starting to get 5 hrs between feedings at that age.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses!!! I'm feeling much better now. I feel lucky that the girls are able to do what they do with the 8-5 thing...AND go back to sleep after that. I just felt criticized by a few people who said I was making them bad nappers because I was sending them back to sleep after that 5am bottle. Well they go RIGHT back to sleep, if they didn't want to, they wouldn't!! They nap ok during the day...i just don't get a couple 2 hour naps from them or anything. 75% of the time they are more what i'd call cat nappers.