Daylight Savings Time

photo © 2009 Mike Licht | more info (via: Wylio)

 

Daylight savings sure snuck up on me this year! I thought it was in April for some reason.  So when my friends (thanks Erin) reminded me of this a few days ago, I quickly remembered how my daughter did not adjust well at the last time change, and I frantically started planning early this time.  Planning daylight savings around your child's sleep schedule can definitely be a challenge!

Since it's Spring Forward, we will be setting our clocks ahead this Saturday night and this means we do NOT get to sleep an extra hour :(  So when we wake up on Sunday, and the clock reads 8am, our bodies will think it's really 7am.  And when my daughter is used to going to bed around 7pm, it will be as if she is going to bed at 8pm.  Not a bad thing, but she usually does much better with an earlier bed time.  And by better, I mean is less cranky and a happy baby!

There are times when she doesn't go to bed until 7:30pm or even closer to 8pm when she has had a late nap or a full day.  So I definitely do not want this time change to drag out and have her going to bed around 9pm. That won't be good for her or for her mom who looks forward to a few hours of mommy alone time before bed.

So the best remedy to get your kids used to the time change?

Start putting them to bed earlier each night by 15 minute increments.  Even if you don't start until tomorrow, you can still get caught up by trying this the next few nights even after the time changes.  And this applies to babies, toddlers and school aged kids!

I started this process on Monday night.  Luckily she can barely stay awake during the day for more than 3 hours at a time and her nap that day ended at 3pm, so by 6pm she was exhausted!  I put her to bed around 6:50pm and she went down pretty easy.

Tuesday, she fell asleep at 6:45pm

But by Wednesday night, she took a long afternoon nap and did not wake until 4:30pm. Yikes! So she was not tired until 7:30pm that night. Oops, a minor setback.

But surprisingly, last night she went down without a whimper at 6:40pm.

And tonight she was asleep by 6:20pm!  She must have been reading my mind, and I think she was helping me with my plan as she woke early at 3pm instead of 4pm from her afternoon nap, and was ready for bed by 6pm.

She usually sleeps about 12 hours at night, so this means she will be waking up early tomorrow morning at 6:30am!  Mommy will be needing to get in bed extra early tonight.

I'm crossing my fingers that everything goes well the next few days, I'll need a little luck and some help from my blackout shades!