We “Spring Forward” This Weekend! How to Prep Baby (and Prevent Crankiness!)
Photo: Veer / The Bump
Consider this your warning: In most places in the country, we begin Daylight Savings Time in the wee hours Sunday morning. And that, of course, means moving your clock one hour forward before you go to bed Saturday night.
For most people, this simply means one hour less sleep, but for a sleep deprived new mama, it could mean having a very unpredictable baby. That one hour is a big deal for baby! “It can be kind of like the baby has jet lag,” says Angelique Millette, a family sleep consultant in San Francisco. “They may be harder to put down at bedtime, or awake when they’re not supposed to be. When toddlers or older kids get off-schedule or their routines change, they may exhibit ‘testing’ behaviors.” Your child could be moody or cranky or act up, or need more naps.
Millette suggests starting early — tonight! — and putting baby down for bedtime about 10 minutes earlier each night, so that by the time you reach Sunday, baby’s going to bed one full hour earlier. (If you start a few days later, that’s okay — it will just take that many days longer to get baby completely adjusted.) And, hopefully, baby will be waking about an hour earlier. This can make the transition go much more smoothly, since it makes the change in bedtime and wake-time less abrupt for baby, and hopefully, makes the switch to the new routine less jarring.
Get more expert tips on dealing with the clock change.
How do you plan on getting your child ready for the start of Daylight Savings Time?
Plus, more from The Bump:
Baby Sleep Schedules: What You Need to Know
Craziest Things Tired Moms Did
The Knot Blog
The Nest Blog
Is it okay to just keep the same schedule? So, say I put my baby down at 6:30 pm every night. With the spring forward, it would now be 7:30 pm. Isn’t that okay? Baby would still be on the same schedule, the time on the clock would just look a little different. And it’s not like he’s going to bed at 10pm now, or anything like that. I’ve been wondering about this for the past few months. Seems like it would be easier on mama, baby, and everyone involved.
When my kids were babies, now 3 and 6, I used to get crazy about bed times and preparing for the time change. With the few years experience that I have now, I have come to realize that if I put them to bed around the same time and dont make a big deal out of it it workds itself out.
Patty, Owner http://www.HarperGraceBaby.com