So... What do I do now that daylight savings is here? Do I move DS's bedtime routine with the sun? I tried sticking to the usual time this evening (between 6 and 6.30), and he was having none of it. The sun's up - it's not sleep time! Poor thing was exhausted and passed out on the boob once the sun set. "All the books say" to stick with your original routine and time, but our unit it quite bright and I don't know how I can go about tricking him into thinking it's nighttime. We are working on a blockout blind in his room (he still sleeps in our room at the moment), but there's a light in the corridor just outside his room so light leaks in around the curtain.
My DH were just working this out. Our DD goes to bed at 730-800. Looking at her at the moment she wont have a bar of sleep (considering it is actually 630 IYGWIM), so we are going to hold her out til 830...we shall see how it goes...
Hey lee, mind if I lurke in here? I have the same question, I have no idea of what I did when DS was much smaller and the last time we had daylight savings, but my wee man is still running around like mad, still hasn't had his bath it's 7.40 and he's usually down around 7.30
Ours go down at 7.30 normally but we have pushed it back to 8pm tonight so they have time to adjust, they all slept until after 8 instead of getting up around 6.30.
I just put both the girls to bed 20mins later than their usual time. they got up at their usual time this morning, and I have stuck to the clock (unfortunately, cause normally I hate sticking to the clock) and they had all their meal times at their normal times, showers at the normal time. But I noticed they werent ready at 7 so I let them stay up and watch one of their shows, then they both went to bed pretty happily.
Mind you this is the first year they have done that. Normally I spend the first week tweeking their routine to get them in line with daylight savings, by the following week they are back to normal routine.
But this week reminds me of why I dislike daylight savings so much! I would rather get up in the morning and do more stuff whilst its cooler than in the afternoons when its too hot and I cant be bothered.
I actually totally forgot about the time change, lol! Lucky for the kids we were running late with bed time anyway! But the usually go to bed at 7pm, tonight it was 7.45, so it was close to the time they would usually go to bed, but not too late for DLS time....does that make sense??
I usually just push it back 10mins or so every 2 days or so until they're at the time you want them to go to bed. It takes a bit for them to change thier routine, but it will happen if you're consistent.
We normally change bedtimes by 15 minutes every couple of days. DD has been keeping really weird hours lately so we just went with the clock tonight - 2 toilet stops and lots of singing later, I think she's ready for sleeping....
Blockout blinds and blockout curtains with a pelmet ... I think that routine is really, really important - Giggle & Hoot bedtime hour really helps here ..
We moved everything back (or forward ) by 30 min today. Though I didn't give DD all her afternoon snacks so she'd be hungrier by the DLS 6.30 which is normally food time anyway. Dinner, Bath, Dessert and Bed went as per time so 6.30 dinner, 7 bath, 7.45 dessert and into her bedroom by 8.15 (we rang daddy as he is working at a gig) .. it usually takes 45min to an hour for her to settle to sleep tonight was no different. I walked out at 9.10.
Have never done anything different just proceed as per every other day. Both are used to sleeping when it is light (I don't darken room for naps, and just have normal blinds so not blacked out at night time) so I don't think makes that much of difference here. In the UK in summer is light till 10 at night, so I was always used to going to bed when light too, maybe this is why had never occurred to me to do anything different regarding bed time with DD and DS.
I've never darkened the room for naps, he sleeps with the light streaming in during the day, but bedtime is a different story for some reason! He also wakes as soon as there's a hint of sunlight in the morning, so about 5am. I don't really want to use a blackout blind, but I'm not sure if I have much choice! Anyone else in the same boat? Will moving his routine by a few minutes each day solve this problem?
TBH his body clock and sleeping patterns are going to change dramatically over the coming months you won't have much control over when he sleeps and how much or little he sleeps. For an infant his age I would not be worrying about setting a bedtime routine and just allow yourself to be guided by his needs.
In terms of light and sleeping - hopefully your baby will continue to sleep well through daylight streaming into his room. For us, DD would NOT settle if her room was not darkened didn't need to be pitch blackbut definately darkened. We have blackout roller blinds but still get the light coming in around the edges and through the top.
Once my DD started dropping her day sleeps to 1 or 2 THEN we decided to do a routine and it was fairly easy to navigate around as we still followed her and saw when she was getting tired.
Your baby is just starting to really get use to the world, If you don't want black out curtains, opt for some blinds so there is still SOME light that comes in but you can control the amount.
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Bedtime and daylight savings
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