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Time Change

Children do not do clocks. Which is why explaining to them that we have to wake up an hour earlier to gt where we are going is fruitless.

Luke is actually doing the best of the whole family. Just don't give him a nap, put him to bed an hour early, and let him wake up when he naturally wakes up. Skipping a nap is a really easy way to put him to bed early, especually when you don't have to worry about waking up at 5am.

Amanda is not doing well at going to bed earlier. The night before last, as Michael was putting Eleanor to bed at 8:30 DST, he heard "Thump. Thump. Thump..." It was Amanda, banging her bed because she had to go to the bathroom. She really enjoys being able to get out of bed when she wakes up, though.

Eleanor is pretty adaptable. She'll go to bed (although not necessarily fall asleep) whenever her "routine" is over. She'll sleep until her alarm wakes her up, or later, if she's tired. We've woken her up the past 2 days. It's hard to explain that last week you were waking up at the time you have to be driving away to school this week. I don't think we've had too many complaints, just difficulty waking up.

I had a friend whose baby just ignored DST. THis girl was so regular that at 7, no matter what you were doing, she would lie down and go to sleep. When I was trying to get Eleanor and Amanda on a schedule of some kind, that sounded heavenly. Now that I have Luke (Mr. start crying for a nap exactly 2 hours after you wake up) I realize that regularity does have some drawbacks, after all.

I am having trouble with this time change, mostly because I refuse to get into bed at a reasonable time. Need more coffee!

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David Christian said…
I'm having serious problems adjusting this year too. On that saturday night we accidentally stayed up until 4 (3 really, without the time change) due to friends + subway troubles. Since then I've been lucky to get to sleep by 2. And if you're trying to go to bed at midnight but you're not tired, lying in bed until 2 is not an option, so you get up, and the problem repeats itself...
March 11, 2008 at 2:09 PM
mathmom said…
Hi Dave! Skipping naps probably doesn't work for you nearly as well as it worked for Luke. One of the sleep theories I agree with is that good sleep leads to more good sleep, i.e., when kids get overtired, they have trouble sleeping for that reason, and they need to take more naps instead of fewer to help them sleep better at night.

But that probably doesn't translate to adulthood. Sorry you're having so much trouble =(

BTW, was that (friends+subway)troubles, or friends + (subway troubles)? Just the mathematician in me...
March 12, 2008 at 9:59 PM
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