anyone dreading the time change?

I am trying my hardest to push back bedtime and try to get our boys to sleep later, for my sanity now and when the time changes. Most days they are up between 5 and 5:30am. Last night they weren't too sleepy before bed, so I kept them up until 7:30pm, versus their usual 7pm (it wasn't hard - they didn't really act sleepy at their usual time). I thought they would MAYBE sleep a bit later this morning....but Michael was up at 4:50am!! Ugh!!! :headbang: He did finally go back to sleep at 5:40am and slept until 6:20am, and Gabriel managed to sleep through all his babbling, crying, etc. for the most part (I left Michael in his crib until he really started really whaling about 5:30 - then held him for a few minutes with the binky and lovie and he finally dropped back off to sleep).

I am SO dreading the time change because 5am is going to become 4am....but I'm not sure what else to do if pushing back their bedtime doesn't help. I know there are others of you with early risers.....I don't know what else to do, so maybe I'm just looking for misery loves company or something..... :grouphug:

 

We are in the same boat and our get up around 5 or 5:30 for their first feed of the day (once in a while 6am, if we are lucky). Can't seem to push their wake time either and I am wondering about the time change as well and what will happen. I am hoping they will sleep in because it will be a bit on the darker side....don't know. We will see what happen and I am right there with you.

 

Same here! We are up between 5am - 5:30am every morning, and even though we don't get them out of the cribs until 6am, it's impossible for Mommy & Daddy to sleep with the girls babbling away!!! The time change is gonna SUCK.

 

I was so looking forward to the time change last year at this time. I was hoping that my boys would go to bed later and sleep later.
Well, they didn't. Somehow they adjusted to their new schedule in 2 days!
With a little bit of help your babies will do too, so you can stick with the well oiled schedule.
GL!

 

for the girls' first year, we shifted their schedule in 15 minute increments every other day or so, starting about a week before the time change, so that by the time the time change rolled around, it essentially didn't effect them. now we just do it cold turkey. it worked really well for us. you need to shift everything in the schedule though, not just bedtime. GL!

 

I did the same thing with DS for his first time change but he was older than the girls are now and I'm not sure if this approach will work. I am TERRIFIED because our days start usually around 5am (if not earlier). I have been dreading it for months, glad to know I'm not alone

 

I even shifted their naps yesterday by 10-15 minutes each, and still the up at 4:50am. I tried it again today....maybe they just need a day or two to adjust to that small change. So far, they are still down for the afternoon nap (yesterday they were up from this nap at 2pm after only 30 minutes).....so maybe there is hope. Like I said, I think I just needed to know I'm not alone in totally dreading this! The last time change they were really small and still really sporadic on the schedule, so it didn't matter much. Now they are still sporadic on how long they nap, so who knows - sometimes they nap 30 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. Just when I feel like we have a good schedule and routine, they change it up on me. Like a few days ago, they flip-flopped their naps and made the long nap the morning and the short nap the afternoon - it had been the other way around for weeks. Some days I just don't know what end is up, KWIM??

 

That is SO true....DH wants to just shut our door and theirs and let them be, but I can't stand to do it - what if they get their arm or leg stuck or something, and I don't hear them? I always check on them when they start to make sure they don't have a messy diaper or wet through or are stuck or something. I feel like I at least need to be able to hear them some, which means no sleep.

 

Oh no! I didn't think of this!

 

Sorry!! Didn't mean to make you worry. ardon:

 

UGH!!! I totally didn't even think of this until right now. Boooo.....this sucks! I have to set my alarm for 6:30am to get in my shower before the troops awake. Am I going to have to wake myself up at 5:30am?! Oh dear.

 

I know I am not the majority, but I have never done anything different with DST with the kids. I just can't keep it all straight! They went down at 7-the old 7, the new 7. See-I'm already confusing myself! :laughing:

For us, it seemed like the time change affected them about 2-3 weeks AFTER the fact. But, it was always a very short adjustment period. I don't even think twice about it anymore.

For those with early risers-maybe they will surprise you and sleep a bit later! Is it going to be light earlier in the morning? I never know. I'd rather it dark in the morning-better chance of the kids sleeping late!

 

Sounds like us. I hadn't even considered what the time change would do to their schedule! Geez. I can't handle waking up at 4:00 every morning!!! I'm sure there's a logical reason, but it sure does seem ridiculous to even mess with Daylight Savings Time anymore.

Meaghan, I hope you're on to something!

 

It will be light an hour earlier. With this time change, what was 5am will become 4am - that combined with more light means they will probably be awake earlier. I think the chances of my guys sleeping later is almost nonexistent....I can't remember the last time they slept past 6am and making it past 5:30 is VERY rare for us.

They napped later today and went to bed 30 minutes later - we will see how that goes. Hopefully not another 4:50am wake-up call!!! Guess we will see. Maybe there's not much I can do about it and I just need to deal, but I figure I should at least try. It did make the evening much less hectic having an extra half hour for baths, etc.

 

ANOTHER day of up before 5am....how is it that we put them to bed 30 minutes later and Michael is up 30 minutes earlier?? And this time he woke up Gabriel. I"m starting to think it's hopeless to try and prepare for the time change. :drown:

 

stick with it! when adjusting a schedule it takes time - honestly, it won't be until a week or so after the time change that things will really setlle in their new groove.

just out of curiosity - have you tried treating the early morning wake up as a middle of the night waking? in other words, soothing them however you would soothe them in the middle of the night (feeding, pacis, rocking, etc) and then repeating that until it's the wake up time you would prefer (usually 12 hours after bedtime)?

 

Yep, I have tried that and it rarely works. In the middle of the night, I do binky and lovie and resettle them without picking them up....if I HAVE to pick them up, I do the pick-up/put down baby whisperer thing (pick them up until they stop crying and put them right back down before they go to sleep). Those things work at night, but not for the early morning wake-ups. Today I even tried holding him with the binky and lovie and even tried laying with him on the sofa. Neither worked. (I didn't rock him - we are trying to wean off of that bad habit that we got into early on when they would fight sleep for an hour).

And they do not sleep 12 hours at night - they never have, not even once. If I'm really lucky, I get 10.5 or rarely 11 hours, but usually it's 10. The last two nights they have only slept 9.5 hours. But, they napped 3.5 hours, which is almost unheard of for them. Honestly, I would rather they take shorter naps and sleep until at least 6am, but I don't think I have a say in that at this point!! They just don't seem to need as much sleep as most babies - they are generally happy during the day, smiling, playing, etc., so I can't complain about that. They certainly don't seem overtired or like they aren't sleeping enough. I made another thread about this, but most days they are getting about 12 hours sleep total, sometimes 13, and a rare 14. It makes me jealous when I hear people posting about their kids sleeping 12 hours at night and napping 3-4 hours, too!

 

We also don't change anything until the time actually changes and they have seemed to not really be affected. Of course, they are older now so that could all be different, but like pp I get confused so I just make the switch when the clock changes and expect a couple of days adjustment. I did want to mention, though, that later bedtimes never equated to later wake-ups at my house. The opposite was true - earlier to bed, later to wake - really! I am also one, though, that leaves them in their cribs babbling and talking until 7:00 (although they rarely wake up before that these days)- they were not allowed to start their day until then!

 

I was worried about this too - and was trying to figure out if it is going to be lighter ealier or what. Here's the deal, right now, in New York the sun is rising 2 minutes later and setting 2 minutes earlier every day. So, maybe it rose today at 6:30am, tomorrow it will be 6:32, then 6:34, and so on.

So, by the time we get to the day to change the time, i think the sun will be rising at 7:32 and setting at 5:47pm!! When we change the clocks backwards an hour, in New York, the sun will rise at 6:32am and set at 4:46pm. So, the light in the morning shouldn't really be ealier then it is today.

But, i am worried too! I feel like we JUST got a good schedule. The boys are now sleeping until 6am instead of 5:30am! And, this morning, they stayed in their cribs happily until 6:45!! Ugh, i hope they adjust easily.

 

When my first was a baby, he was also an early morning waker and the time change was HORRIBLE for us. This time around, I will probably do CIO if they wake before 6 when the time changes. I can't go through months of waking up at 4:30 am again.

 

Well, it may have been a fluke, but they slept until 6:20am this morning! I'm not counting on it as a pattern, though - that has happened occasionally before and then we go right back to the 5am wake up. Of course, Michael was up from 12-12:30 with a stomach age - not sure why or from what - he finally passed a bunch of gas went back to sleep (we didn't give him anything new yesterday....)