Daylight Saving Time could be everyone’s favorite time of year because you gain an hour of sleep. Everyone loves that, except the parents out there with little ones who can’t understand the time change.
This past weekend, the clocks moved back an hour, theoretically giving us another hour of sleep. However, my little baby, who is just now 1 year old, thought otherwise.
Our baby goes from eating dinner at 5:30 p.m. to bedtime at 6:15 p.m. on a normal day in our house. He thrives on that schedule and will sleep through the night until 6 a.m.
Well, the time change that meant little guy woke up earlier than normal — at 5 a.m. — but it messed him up so badly he actually woke up at 4:30 a.m.
That is way too early for this mama.
We got up and gave him a bottle and a clean diaper thinking maybe he would go back to sleep, but no such luck. He was up and ready for the day.
We had a full day of playing with his sister, going to church and playing outside all before lunchtime.
We thought the morning would be the only thing altered by the time change, but we were wrong. It also changed his afternoon nap schedule and bedtime schedule. Our little one normally takes a nap at noon until 2:30 p.m., but with the early start to his day he fell asleep in church and slept for the hour there — and then not at all the rest of the afternoon.
No rest for the tired mama who’s been up since 4:30 a.m. He played and played and played until he wanted dinner at 5 p.m. and then couldn’t hang any longer and went to sleep at 5:45 p.m.
Now, I know that sounds really early to some people, but the baby thrives on 6 p.m.- 6 a.m. sleep, so we were lucky to get him to wait until 5:45 p.m. to go down even with the time change.
But what can we do to help transition them through the time change? Nothing really, except embrace it at the start, with hope to get them back on schedule in the next few days.
That is, unless there is a secret I am missing, but I don’t think there is. We just bunkered down and took it in stride. We tried to stay positive and think of the upside — we got a little more time with our little one for the day. Which is great, because we both work and don’t normally see him a lot through the week. So, the extra hour or so was nice in that sense.
The day after Daylight Saving he woke up only a half hour earlier than his normal time. So, sticking to the regular schedule as closely as we could worked to get him back on track quickly.
I think all parents can agree though, Daylight Saving can be a thing of the past. Let the babies sleep and keep their schedules. Let the parents sleep, rather than waking up earlier and earlier.
Lastly, let’s remember this week to give those mamas out there with little ones some extra grace and patience — because who knows what time they woke up with their kids. Stay positive and caffeinated mamas!
ANN BURNS is a Morgantown native, raising two young children with her husband, Drake. She writes weekly columns for The Dominion Post. Contact her at Columns@DominionPost.com.
