ACK - Daylight Savings Time - Help!

[AlisonCO]

I just turned my calendar over and realized that DST is this weekend. I always forget how to help my kids adjust to the time change - anyone? My 6 month old has put herself on a great schedule and I SO do not want this to mess it up. She goes to bed at 7 and sleeps until 6 and then naps at 9, 12:30 and 4. Do I try to move her bedtime tonight and tomorrow OR do I just wait until Sunday morning and make sure that she doesn't sleep past 6 to preserve her normal nap times? Spring Forward, right? Thanks!

[BooeyJ2]

Ooh, good thread. Keeping my eyes and ears open ;)

[cc8]

Yep spring forward. Subscribing, too...hope this doesn't screw up DD's sleep! ACK!

[twinnyme]

Can't be much help but I'm subscribing too because I want some ideas as well!

[kindermom]

Add me to the list of people waiting for some advice from experienced parents!

[marchfamily]

I guess we're lucky (knock on wood). DD currently goes to bed between 6:30-7pm and wakes between 5:30-6am (napping 2x during the day). We're going to put her to bed a hour later, 7:30pm (with DST) and hopes she sleeps an hour later.

[cece]

i am praying that ds savings forces my ds to wake up an hour later in the morning...he's been waking at 5a for the past month!

[newyorkgirl]

No real experience here, but since DS is transitioning from 3 naps to 2, I'm just going to go ahead and give him his third late afternoon nap through the weekend and hopefully that will help give him extra sleep and boost his bedtime later (with not too much of an effect on wake-up time, which is currently 6:30-7 am).

[solongtogo]

Thanks for starting this. The state I live in is doing DST for the first time ever and I'm so clueless about this whole fall back spring forward crap.

[firefly]

Our girls have made the transition already... :( that means my sleepers who were sleeping in to 7:30 are now up and at em by 6:30 Goodness knows I can't wait until I can sleep until 7 again. if you want to gently do it move bedtime by 15 minutes for a week and you'll be back at normal times again. hth... but really I've found that if you keep their routine the same they adjust pretty quickly. (like in day.. that first day is a bit cranky though)

[maggieb]

This year I'm going to try to make the girls' bedtimes later. They both go to bed at 7 right now...so on Sunday night I'm going to put them down at 8PM. DLS. So, really the same time. They get up now around 6:30, so I hope they'll start to get up at 7:30 new time. This is my favorite time change. I'm hoping that by the time fall comes around and we have to switch back, that we cna go back to the 7pm bedtime. Also, since it gets darker later I like having them up a little later. Like I said though, this is the first year I'm trying it. We'll see how it goes. I'm anticipating no problems, since really it's the same bedtime and wakeup times. Did any of that make sense?

[Bucktown]

Oh Goodness, me too mamatallcott. My DS gets up at that first little peek of sunlight...5:13 AM! Sometimes it's as early are 4:45AM. DS is 21 mos. & all we have ever done is put him to bed at this 'regular time' the night before (7:45 PM) and pray he sleeps till the new time of 6:15 AM. Nap time stays the same and so does the 1st nights bedtime. We've never had a problem, knock on wood. I've been counting down the days till DST for 4 weeks now. :(

[emschwar]

Last year, daylight savings time caused Noah to move his bedtime an hour later (from 6pm to 7pm). I don't know what will happen this year. I don't want him going to bed at 8, that's too late. I think we might look into some light blocking shades this year.

[Kanga]

DD goes to bed at 7 and gets up at 5/5:30. This is right before dh gets home and 5 is way early so I'm hoping to do the same thing as maggie. It will be the same time to her, but an hour later on the clock. 8-6 sounds much better, but I will miss my hour or so of child free laundry, cleaning, whatever.

[AlisonCO]

Thank you all!

I am not sure what I want to do now. DD sleeps from 7-6 and while I wouldn't mind her sleeping until 7am, I worry that she won't be ready for her nap at 8:45am. We have classes and playgroups that start at 10:30am so this schedule is working really well for us. Maybe I will move her bedtime to 7:30 on Saturday night and see what she does on Sunday. DS has been getting up early so I would love if he slept later - I think that I will try pushing him from 7:30pm to 8:15pm in hopes that he will sleep until 6am.

Good Luck everyone!

[newmommy]

Oh wow!! Thanks for posting this!! My DS will be three months old next week, and has fallen into his own little schedule---and just recently STTN!

We have just been letting him fall asleep at anywhere from 6-8pm and waiting to see when he wakes up next(which has been between 4:30-6:30am)

I'm so confused now! Should I wake him tomorrow night around 8:00 to make sure he stays somewhat on schedule? Or just let him fall into his own pattern??

TIA(sorry to hijack thread for a moment ;) )

[Littlelamb11]

we just stick with the regular schedule and suck it up for a day. By the next day, eveything is usually back on track.

IME, putting the kids to bed an hour later doesn't equal sleeping in an hour later. in our house, it actually equals getting up an hour EARLIER.
:rolleyes: Our kids don't sleep in unless they go to bed a good 3 hours late.

[westamp]

i am praying that ds savings forces my ds to wake up an hour later in the morning...he's been waking at 5a for the past month!

Same here! DS has been waking up at 6:00 am on the weekends every since we fell back last winter! :( I'm hoping the time change will make him wake up later!

[BooeyJ2]

Just thought I would *bump* this up to see how everyone has adjusted.


DD slept AWESOME last night. She fell asleep at 8:00pm and woke up at 7:30am! :) She was getting up between 6:30 and 7:00am lately, so I HOPE this sleep schedule sticks! :)

[twinnyme]

Just thought I would *bump* this up to see how everyone has adjusted.

We did well over here, too. For some reason, her nap on Sunday was only 1.5 hours so she went to bed even earlier than her usual time (7:15 instead of 7:30) and did just fine. So we're happy with the way DST worked out for us. She got up at 6:40 this morning, which is her usual time (sometimes earlier).

[AlisonCO]

Thanks for bumping! We did fine also. DS slept all night and took a nap yesterday - he did go to bed a bit later last night because it was so light out. DD slept for her normal 11 hours and we still got 3 naps in although I did have to wake her from the last one. It did seem like we all were very tired this morning - I even had regular coffee which I never do and DS wanted to watch the whole hour of Sesame Street which he normally doesn't do. All in all it went more smoothly than I anticipated.

[westamp]

DS didn't wake up until 8:30 am on Sunday. However, we had trouble putting him to sleep yesterday (He didn't go to sleep until 10'ish!?!?!). He also woke up at 2:30! :(

Of course he didn't wake up this am until close to 8! Hopefully the waking up at 8 will stick!

[Kanga]

DD did extremely well. She went to bed really easily sat night and slept until 7:30 Sunday. :D :) :eek: I don't think there's enough smilies in the world for that one! Normally she gets up at 5, sometimes even before so 7:30 (really 6:30) is wonderful. And last nite she went to bed easily again and slept til 7:30 as well. I'm only hoping for a repeat tomorrow morning. I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't just jinx myself.

[cece]

DD did extremely well. She went to bed really easily sat night and slept until 7:30 Sunday. I don't think there's enough smilies in the world for that one! Normally she gets up at 5, sometimes even before so 7:30 (really 6:30) is wonderful.

same here! ds was waking between 5-5:30a and going to sleep by 6:30p prior to the time change. saturday night, we pushed him until 7p and he slept until 6:45a!! wahoo! sunday night we put him down at about 7:30p and he slept today until 6:45a also! i'm ecstatic. not only because we can start our day at 7a like normal people instead of 5a, but also because dh gets to see him right before he goes to bed which makes for a really happy dad and boy.

also, he's been taking 2hr naps the last 2 days instead of the 1 1/2 hr naps he was taking before.

[newmommy]

Went well for us too.
DS seemed to transition fairly easily, and just last night he slept 8 hours-fed early this morning, then back to bed until 8:00 am!!!!!!!!!!:D

[Daniel's Kitty]

We have done great since I have actually gotten to sleep in until 8, but now our first nap and breakfast are messed up. I am still scared about it being light later since he doesn't like to sleep if it is light.
fuy