Fall is here! I thought I would miss Tallahassee’s colors of fall, but was able to find just a few turning leaves right here in our swamp… I mean conservation. The cool weather makes me feel like the holidays are already here, and with the fall weather comes daylight savings time.

I used to love Fall Back, until I had a newborn’s sleep pattern to alter. All of the sudden, my meticulously crafted bedtime routine (which included “induced” naps, i.e. a walk in the stroller, to ensure an acceptable bed time) goes up in smoke and my little man’s internal clock is stuck an hour ahead.  Most parents of little ones in the U.S. feel my pain as they set their clocks one hour forward in spring and one hour back in fall. However, residents of Arizona and Hawaii, along with the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, will do nothing. Those locales never deviated from standard time within their particular time zones and I think they are on to something.

The drive behind the time switch is to adjust daylight hours to when most people are awake and about. Daylight saving time decreases the amount of daylight in the morning hours so that more daylight is available during the evening. Which I actually like….but Jason associates daylight with playtime…and bedtime is 8pm.

Gradually Change Bed Time. A week before the switch before daylight saving starts, get your child into bed a little earlier each night. Keep your same bed time routine, but implement it 15 min early and inch it up closer to the new bed time as the switch approaches.

Create Night Time. If your child relates bedtime to dark night skies, slowly turn your home into night by cshutting down one room at a time and using usual evening lighting.

Adjust Nap and Wake Up Times Too. I know its unheard of to wake a sleeping baby… but if the day doesn’t get started in time, Jason could take his afternoon nap too late and then push bedtime back. I am putting positive thoughts into the universe that Jason will believe me when I come into his room @ 5:30 or 6 and tell him the day isn’t going to start just yet.