Any Other Moms Go to Bed as Early as 8 p.m.?

I do go to bed at 8:00 PM with my daughter (7 years) and my son (4 months). My daughter need to get up early to catch school bus and my sone wake up once or twice in night. I wake up at 4:30 am to get ready, make lunch and exercise. I head out of house at 6:30 amto catch train to downtown. So I am getting close to the 7-8 hrs sleep time.

I am like you will be wreck without sleep. I need sleep or else can't function. Everyone is different and i think both us need sleep. I do have me time on the train transit - read bookd, talk to friend and family or listen to music etc.

I think you are smart! I would go to bed at 9pm every night if I could.

I am a 9:00 girl in a 1:00 world!

I have one more teenager to go then I can go to bed when I WANT!

I think you are doing what you need to do in order to "be there" for your family. Nothing wrong with that. Sounds like hubby is great and that things are working, so what does it matter if anyone else does it?

I think you are very smart for sleeping when the kids sleep. After all, that's the advice we all give - you rest when the kids do.

Keep at it mama!

My philosophy: "If it ain't broke don't fix it."

Do what makes sense for you to function the way you need to function. With a baby and toddler, I can completely understand going to bed at 8 pm, esp. if you're still getting up multiple times a night and managing a full-time job.

My kids are school-aged now, but some days are rough, and I'll find that I've fallen asleep on the sofa and it's only 8:30 or so.

Parenting is hard work. Keep yourself healthy and do what you need to do. If that means going to bed early, do it. :)

Once they're older you'll be able to stay up a bit later. They'll also grow and need to be up later too. So it's a natural process. I would sleep when they do too.

When DD was little and I was working FT I went to bed before 9 PM every night, sometimes as early as 7 PM. That way I got plenty of sleep and the night waking/nursing didn't drain my energy all that much. Just as with you DH never got up at night (not even a single time) - in his defense he is a terrible insomniac, so if he gets woken in the middle of the night he can't go back to sleep.

I agree that you have to do what works for you. Honestly, even now that I stay up late... I don't know about other couples, but it;s not like DH and I make out or have actual conversations most nights. I'd say 90% of the time we either watch TV or are busy on our computers/study/clean... not like going to bed early means missing out on a lot of couple interaction.

Good luck

I used to lay down with my toddler on her bed and fall asleep before she did I think. But it didn't last forever - it was during that time when I had a pre-schooler and an infant and my husband worked odd hours as a police officer. I was also working full time, doing the shopping, meal preparation, laundry, etc. Once my kids began to sleep through the night I began to be a new person but even when they were in grade school I was still so tired from doing all these other things, working, getting up before 6:00 am, etc. I still went to bed only a little while after the kids. 9:30 was a late night for me for many years.
Now the opposite is true. I ahve teenagers who want to stay up forever. And I have to stay up while they're up so I often don't go to bed until midnight. I was so accustomed to doing many things while they were in bed falling asleep (dishwasher, making lunches, tidying up the kitchen, etc.) that I had to shift that or I'd never get to sleep.

Go to bed at 8:00 and don't feel bad about it. A well-rested mom is more important than the other stuff. (but when the time comes to stay up later you will have to wrest the remote from your husbands hands after all these years of having it to himself).

If I went to bed at 8, I'd wake at 2 am and would probably end up doing laundry, since I know I would have trouble falling back to sleep. Kudos to you for being able to get good sleep, though!! I'm sure I'd be a much more productive person if I got more sleep.

In my dreams! After the girls are in bed, it is the only time I have to myself.

I did stop at a substitute teachers house to drop off the papers for the next day. It was 7:30 and she was in her pjs. Dont know if she was headed for the bed though.

Nope...I always stay up with my hubby. It is our alone time together. I did this when we had babies also. We like having our time alone together..then I would take a nap when my little ones napped. Just worked out for us!

But I understand the need for sleep when you have little ones. Do what is best for you and your husband...and kids. Don't worry about what the majority do.

I stay up long after the kids, it's the only quite time I get in the house. I also try to get up earlier then them. I have 8 kids, the oldest is 21 and the youngest is 3. I can pretty much run on very little sleep, not that I don't like sleep, I have just gotten used to very little. I am now at the point that I get about 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. It works for me.

I use to go to bed that early when I was getting up at 4am.
Grab what ever sleep you can when you can.

My suggestion would be to sacrifice NEITHER.

If you completely forsake your husband's company for sleep, that's a terrible risk/strain on your marriage.

If you are an utter disaster for lack of sleep, then that's a terrible risk for your kids.

So... Have your cake & eat it, too.

- Make BOTH a priority.
- Different times.

Yup. That will require shuffling less important things around. Working 4 10s, or long lunches (for lunch dates), or late starts (for breakfast dates). Or a babysitter on a weekend day every weekend, Or, Or, Or, Or.

There are a lot of ways to move things around.
Yep. Its most likely all options will be met with "But! I want/can't/couldn't/etc.

Probably LESS than you want to be a divorced single parent.

Its not an overnight thing.

Its death by 1000 cuts.

Make your marriage and your husband a priority.

This LOOKS different for all families.

My dad was out to sea at least 6mo a year. But that worked for my parents, be ause they were each a priority to each other. They made each other feel special & wanted.

You may already be incredibly close with your husband and don't need to reprioritize. You & he have a lot of quality time together, and just have it worked out that you sleep early & he has desperately loved alone time at night.

If so... Don't stress about when others get in their quality time.

But it sounds like EVERYTHING else is more important than your marriage/husband. The strength of your marriage lets that happen for a limited time without consequence... Just not months/years of being dead last.

If it works for ya'll then there is nothing wrong with it!!! Some need more sleep than others. If I thought I could get away with going to sleep at that time I would. I just have too much of a hard time falling asleep. I am glad your husband helps the way he does. Not a lot do. Mine is like that what ever is best for me and the kids he's good with. Don't worry about what others do.

Unfortunately, my kids never went to bed quite that early but yes, I would go to bed at the same time as my kids when they were young. Now I have a damn dog to go walk after they're in bed! But I was often in bed at 8:30 or 9 while my husband stayed up. I too was the one getting woken up all the time in the middle of the night and love my sleep. So what you're doing doesn't strike me as odd! And it's not forever. Now I stay up until 10 or even 10:30!! I also get up at least an hour earlier than my husband every day... It means no "me" time as others have mentioned but I need sleep more than that.

Yep, I go to bed with the newborn. Hubby stays up working till around 12. I rarely ask him to help in the middle of the night, as he needs his sleep for work.

I'm still struggling to function! I can't wait till this baby starts sleeping through the night!

My kids are older and are up later, but I've gone to bed when they do if I'm tired and I don't even have to deal with night wakings and FT work like you are.

I've always needed more sleep than my husband. He can be up until midnight then get up for work at 5am with no problems. Evenings are not the only time we have together so it really isn't a big deal if I go to bed earlier. On very rare occasion, I'm the one staying up later.

Whatever works for you is good for you.

I need more sleep then my hubby and he is up at all hours of the night working on emails, getting the international business news, etc. He can function on 6 or less and I am no where near functional at that rate.

I will sometimes just go to bed by 9 if I am finished with my work and have the extra time to snooze but my favorite time to snooze is early am. I have a hard time getting out of bed.

Updated

Whatever works for you is good for you.

I need more sleep then my hubby and he is up at all hours of the night working on emails, getting the international business news, etc. He can function on 6 or less and I am no where near functional at that rate.

I will sometimes just go to bed by 9 if I am finished with my work and have the extra time to snooze but my favorite time to snooze is early am. I have a hard time getting out of bed.

I can not go to bed at 8. I'd never get any me time. I NEED my me time and our couple time. That's the time I get when the kids go to bed.

You gotta do what works for you!

I go to bed around 9:30/10 and am up at 5:30. My boys are in bed 8/8:30. My husband goes to bed at different times every night, a lot depends on his work schedule.

If I went to bed that early, I would stay awake staring at the ceiling until 11pm at least. My husband and i are both night owls and prefer to stay up late. Since we started having children, we stay up late to reconnect and spend time together. The only reason I ever went to bed before 10 pm was if I was sick or I had just had a baby. I do love an afternoon nap though! :)