diff --git a/projects/jupyter-server-ydoc/jupyter_server_ydoc/stores.py b/projects/jupyter-server-ydoc/jupyter_server_ydoc/stores.py
index 4f31a9de..f773c248 100644
--- a/projects/jupyter-server-ydoc/jupyter_server_ydoc/stores.py
+++ b/projects/jupyter-server-ydoc/jupyter_server_ydoc/stores.py
@@ -30,3 +30,9 @@ class SQLiteYStore(LoggingConfigurable, _SQLiteYStore, metaclass=SQLiteYStoreMet
         help="""The document time-to-live in seconds. Defaults to None (document history is never
         cleared).""",
     )
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+        # Class is instantiated later, so we need to set the document_ttl here
+        self.document_ttl = int(self.document_ttl) if self.document_ttl is not None else None
+      
\ No newline at end of file