Even babies need a bedtime

When my son was a baby he slept all the time. (Mostly while laying on me.) I remember having to wake him up to feed him and all the times he fell asleep while still breastfeeding. When I asked our doctor about all this, she asked some questions about family history and determined that everything was fine. She added that we were lucky because our son slept so well.

I loved all the little routines he had through his waking and sleeping cycles. And, as he got older, we adjusted those routines to our working schedules until he ended up with a regular bedtime of 8 pm.

Now, more than six years later, he still has a bedtime that falls around 8:30 pm. Granted, today's bedtime routine - no matter how consistent we've tried to maintain it - has become a nightly battle of wills, but the boy (somehow) goes to bed at about the same time every night.

Sleep is important.

I didn't realize that those routine adjustments my husband and I were doing to give our son a bedtime were actually beneficial to his health (we were just doing that for our sanity). But, it turns out that babies need a regular bedtime, too. In addition to helping establish routines in their lives early on, regular sleep cycles help prevent obesity later on in life.

So, whether you put your baby to bed at the same time every night because you would like five minutes alone with your spouse or because you are taking advantage of the fact that babies can't fight back against the bedtime routine too much at that age, keep in mind:

Sleep is good.

What's everyone's bedtime in your household? Tell me in the comments.