The last couple nights, Lucy went to bed a bit later and even (oh joy!) slept a bit later this morning. Normally, I’d try to ease her back into our goal of a 7pm-7am sleep pattern. But then I remembered: daylight-savings time is rapidly approaching. Who wins, Lucy or the clock — or both? Do we even have a choice?
I hadn’t even thought about this dilemma until Keri brought it up in an email to me a few weeks ago:
bq. Do we move bedtimes, mealtimes to match the clock? Or leave them the same to match the kid’s body? Our family tends to do like the farmers do: sleep more (in theory, anyway) in the winter and have an earlier bedtime, then have a later bedtime in the summer to enjoy the outdoors and family events a little more. I’d be interested to see what your other readers have done with their families. Who knew it could be so complicated?
I’m guessing that the fact that the daylight hours change along with the time will help in making some adjustments. We aren’t really sure what the pros and cons are, but we know some of you have been there and can probably tell us a tale or two.
(Props to Keri M. for raising this issue. Anyone else who wants to propose a question or topic for the Boyds’ Nesters to toss around, feel free to do so and I’ll try to post about it!)
p{color:gray}. Photo: Just a month ago, the sun was still streaming through the window onto Lucy at 6:30 PM. By that time today, it will be well below the horizon.
I want to thank everyone for their “sleep” input. I can report two successful crib sleepings going down without being nursed, but rather patted!! and last night she also went down without nursing to sleep and stayed in her bed until midnight. Everyones words were/are really good and have provided a lot of insight and encouragement. Thanks all.
Ann,
As to time changing…I think I am going to let it just happen. Because right now we are just aiming at no night time nursing (are at least fewer). However, I find I am wrong with my first oppions!! so we will see :-)
Oh, I forgot…
what do you all think of the flu shot. Maddy went to the doctor today for her 9 month check up and the nurse urged me do it…but I don’t know. Is it really needed?
My great doctor told me to think about it, but said she would do it (she has 5 children).
What do you all think?
We got the flu shot for Benjamin last year and had no problems with it. Personally, I would do it (obviously that’s what I chose last year) because the risks to an infant if they catch the flu are pretty bad.
As to daylight savings time – last fall we switched Benjamin. It wasn’t too difficult because he was only about 4 1/2 months old at the time. The way we did it was to drive around for about an hour to get him to take an extra nap and that did it. In the spring, he was getting up at 6am and going to bed at 7pm, so we opted not to switch him because an 8pm – 7am schedule sounded better!
We are planning to switch him again when the clock changes this month. Right now he’s on an 8pm – 7am schedule and I don’t relish the idea of him up at 6am, plus it’s hard to get much done in the evening if he goes down at 7pm. My plan is to gradually switch him by moving the bedtime back by 15 minutes at a time over the course of a week or two. We may end up making the transition more quickly, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.
I think this is one of those things that you just decide based on what works well for you as a family. Since James frequently isn’t home from work until 5:30 or 6:00pm, the later bedtime works much better for us (plus it works better with dinner time, too).
We did not get the flu shot last winter. This year, we will.
The doctor told me last year that since Evan’s home with me most of the time, it just wasn’t an issue. If he had been in daycare or out with other children a lot, then the doc would have recommended it. He left it up to me, and I just never got around to deciding, so … we didn’t do it.
However, Evan (and the rest of the family) were sick with colds on and off all winter. Emmett and I have never had a winter like that before. I guess it’s just part of having a child – we were eating mostly healthily, kept the toys disinfected, etc. but we just kept getting sick and passing the germs around. This year, I know going into it that I’d like to do whatever I can to prevent sickness … and the flu shot seems like it would be helpful.
Re: Daylight Savings … we’ve switched Evan each time. Usually it takes a couple of days to get acclimated, but it hasn’t been a very big deal.
Jon and I have always been pro-flu shot for us, so I’m leaning toward getting one for Lucy. I’ll ask at her next well-baby appointment to see what the pediatrician thinks.
I’m very pro flu shot. I personally have dropped 30 pounds from 2 bouts of the flu. 15 lbs each time, just 1 month apart. So I can’t imagine my little one’s getting it. I hope Mo is old enough for his at his 6 month appt.
Daylight savings and Standard time was always a little rough for a few days. The older the kid, the harder to deal with it seems. Or maybe it’s my older kid is just difficult? I have been getting into my bed with both kids at about 7:15-7:30 the last 2 nights, especially with the nasty cold I have. It’s been working and the kids have been going to bed at a decent time! I’ll just see what happens when we set the clocks back.