Time Change

[cjwagner77]

I started to freak out today when I realized that I had my thinking all wrong.  Fall back (in October) means that we loose an hour.  So when dd normally wakes up at 6:30, the clock will read 5:30!!!!  Not a pleasant thought.  She usually gets up between 6:30-7:00 and goes to bed around 7pm.

Any suggestions on making this transition so that we can get her used to the new time and not go back to getting up before 6am again?

Thanks!
Crystal

[sacmommy]

I always find time changes to be difficult (as well as travelling to time zones a few hrs off!) I would start changing timing of naps and bedtime, when possible about 5-7 days prior to the time change. I would just move things up by about 10-15 min per day, including meal timing etc. Hopefully that will begin the adjustment, so that your child is only off by a half hr or so when the time changes!

[Mum to Ella Rose]

I think it's in the latest book but Tracy suggest putting them to bed an hour later for the fall time change. Do you have that book? If not let me know and when I have more time later today I'll post exactly what it says. 

Sharon

[cjwagner77]

Putting her to bed an hour later would be killer on us if she continues as she is now.  We'll have to see how her schedule is then.  We are switching to one nap so some night she goes to bed by 5:30 if she didn't get a good nap.  (The nap length has shortened and I am hoping that once she is used to one nap, she will take a longer one.)  I can push her nap times and various things during the day.  But once she wakes up in the morning, she is up.  If she wakes up before 6:30-7:00, I generally don't get her up.  She talks to herself and plays in her crib.  But I couldn't leave her there an extra hour.  She would end up too mad about that.  And when she is done with the day, she is done.  Last night, she signed that she was all done with the activity we were doing and I realized that it was 6:45 and time for a bath.  She only played in the tub for a few minutes before signing all done.  Then we read a book after the bath.  Again she signed all done after only a few minutes.  She was really ready for bed.  She was asleep within about 5 minutes.

Anyone else have a child like this?  Were you able to push off their bedtime?  I wonder if we start pushing it off by 15 minutes at first and increase it every few days?

Crystal

[elfin]

Time changes are a bit rough.  You could try like the others have suggested, by pushing her bedtime and naptime a bit further a few minutes each day.

Within a week or 2 afterwards though, it will settle itself out.

I'm already dreading it a bit!