Daylight Sanity Time
Once upon a time, I loved the day when Daylight Saving Time ends. Long after I stopped waking up pre-dawn to open Christmas presents, I felt the day when we set our clocks back was the most magical day of the year; how could toys possibly compete with an extra hour of sleep? I can remember some Sundays when I could take it slow and relax all day long, and still fell asleep well before my bedtime that night. Not since football’s opening weekend had I enjoyed so much free time on a Sunday.
Now that I have a 17-month-old on a schedule, I hate the day we fall back. No more extra hour of sleep for me, I have to convince Abbie that every internal time cue she has is spontaneously ahead by one hour. How I long for the days when Abbie can take care of herself, and the twins, in the morning so I can sleep in again.
Abbie shifted her schedule surprisingly smoothly when Daylight Saving Time ended last year. I set her down a half-hour late the night before, woke her up at the new wake time that morning, and Abbie accepted the whole schedule change as easily as the USC football team accepted a Pete Carroll practical joke. No whining, no super early mornings, just lots of giggles and lollipops as I smiled my way through the joys of parenting a 5-month-old. At least that’s how I remember it; the Abbieupdate archives don’t go back that.
I tried the same strategy this year. Saturday night I kept her awake a half-hour past her bedtime. She tries to weasel a few extra minutes out of me every night, so she thought this late bedtime was pretty cool. She enjoyed staying up so much that she forgot her stranger anxiety and let my dad read to her for several minutes (that’s when the picture from yesterday’s post was taken). She fell asleep with minimal fussing, validating my strategy to wear her out. That night, I spent my extra 30 minutes in the only way I still know how: Poking around the internet.
The next morning she woke up promptly at 7am, which gave her the usual amount of sleep, but was a half-hour earlier than I wanted her awake. Figuring the best way to readjust her schedule was to rescue her at the proper time, I listened to her on the monitor while otherwise ignoring her. For more than 20 minutes, I listened to her coo cutely in bed. Then I heard her coo confusedly. When I heard her coo angrily, I figured close enough and started her day.
I worried that naptime would be difficult that first day with her waking up early in the morning and her internal clock still set on Daylight Saving Time. It’s not like she’s some easily controlled shrinking violet like Katie Holmes. She fell asleep that afternoon with extra fussing, but nothing excessive, and woke up a little early from her nap, but not deeply enough to cut into my internet time. She went down that night with minimal fussing again, and I thought I was in the clear.
The next morning, though, she woke up at 6:45am, and blew right past cute cooing straight to furious that I would let her sleep in so late and deprive her of cat hunting time. I quickly gave up ignoring her, and entered her room to start her day much too early. We spent the next half-hour slowly moving through her morning routine in an attempt to at least feed her at the correct time. Did you know choosing the perfect bib for the day can take upwards of ten minutes if you try hard enough?
That was the worst bump we’ve had in our quest to adjust her schedule. Sleep times since have been marked with a little extra fussiness, and wake times have been a little early, but I can still cram all my favorite websites into the day with enough time leftover to write adequate blog posts with minimle spelling errers.
Now that I have a 17-month-old on a schedule, I hate the day we fall back. No more extra hour of sleep for me, I have to convince Abbie that every internal time cue she has is spontaneously ahead by one hour. How I long for the days when Abbie can take care of herself, and the twins, in the morning so I can sleep in again.
Abbie shifted her schedule surprisingly smoothly when Daylight Saving Time ended last year. I set her down a half-hour late the night before, woke her up at the new wake time that morning, and Abbie accepted the whole schedule change as easily as the USC football team accepted a Pete Carroll practical joke. No whining, no super early mornings, just lots of giggles and lollipops as I smiled my way through the joys of parenting a 5-month-old. At least that’s how I remember it; the Abbieupdate archives don’t go back that.
I tried the same strategy this year. Saturday night I kept her awake a half-hour past her bedtime. She tries to weasel a few extra minutes out of me every night, so she thought this late bedtime was pretty cool. She enjoyed staying up so much that she forgot her stranger anxiety and let my dad read to her for several minutes (that’s when the picture from yesterday’s post was taken). She fell asleep with minimal fussing, validating my strategy to wear her out. That night, I spent my extra 30 minutes in the only way I still know how: Poking around the internet.
The next morning she woke up promptly at 7am, which gave her the usual amount of sleep, but was a half-hour earlier than I wanted her awake. Figuring the best way to readjust her schedule was to rescue her at the proper time, I listened to her on the monitor while otherwise ignoring her. For more than 20 minutes, I listened to her coo cutely in bed. Then I heard her coo confusedly. When I heard her coo angrily, I figured close enough and started her day.
I worried that naptime would be difficult that first day with her waking up early in the morning and her internal clock still set on Daylight Saving Time. It’s not like she’s some easily controlled shrinking violet like Katie Holmes. She fell asleep that afternoon with extra fussing, but nothing excessive, and woke up a little early from her nap, but not deeply enough to cut into my internet time. She went down that night with minimal fussing again, and I thought I was in the clear.
The next morning, though, she woke up at 6:45am, and blew right past cute cooing straight to furious that I would let her sleep in so late and deprive her of cat hunting time. I quickly gave up ignoring her, and entered her room to start her day much too early. We spent the next half-hour slowly moving through her morning routine in an attempt to at least feed her at the correct time. Did you know choosing the perfect bib for the day can take upwards of ten minutes if you try hard enough?
That was the worst bump we’ve had in our quest to adjust her schedule. Sleep times since have been marked with a little extra fussiness, and wake times have been a little early, but I can still cram all my favorite websites into the day with enough time leftover to write adequate blog posts with minimle spelling errers.
posted by Matt at
9:55 PM
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