Kiddipedia
It has come to that time of year where the weather is warming up and the days are getting longer. If you are a parent then this may not have been as welcome as it is for the rest of the world. You may have noticed your little one is up with the birds which is getting earlier and earlier and its rather unwelcome! The good news is daylight savings is coming and that will see those birds and your little one up later!
I see so many clients and families who are unsure of how to best manage the transition. Often they feel that if they just leave their little one as is that they will just wake at a later time when the clocks change and nothing is needed to be done. While sometimes that may work often it can backfire as all of a sudden your little one will instead of waking up with the birds be going to sleep when they are still awake and chirping! I find a gentle transition leading up to the change works best and allows your little one to adjust much more quickly that if done in the one go.
If you would like to follow my advice then I would recommend on the Friday before the change you follow your normal daily routine but you would wake your little one 20 mins earlier than usual from their last sleep of the day. If you little one is still quite little and having the 3rd nap which is a catnap then wake then early from the second sleep and do the catnap 20 mins earlier as they will struggle if they only get 10 mins or so at that little nap. You would then follow your evening bath, feed and bed 20 mins earlier and if on a 7-7 routine pop them to bed at 6:40 – 20 mins earlier than usual. On the Saturday morning wake you little one up 20 mins earlier than usual – so on the 7-7 I recommend this would be 6:40. Follow through your daily routine 20 mins earlier that usual but again wake your little one a further 20 mins early from that afternoon sleep. This would mean you would now be doing everything 40 mins earlier than on your normal routine and your little one would go to bed at 6:20. On the following day you would now have the clocks change and you can get your little one up at the new 7am and follow through your days as usual. If you have followed this transition you should find you have little to none disruption to normal sleep patterns
If your little one is an early riser then daylight savings is often a very welcome change and you may be hoping for later mornings as the world is darker later and the birds take a sleep in too. I hope this is the case for your family but all too often I see families pin their hope on this only to be disappointed. I don’t want to bring you down here! Not at all! But those who know me know I am always going to be honest about what you can expect as trust me things go better if you are prepared! If your little one is one who is waking because they can hear the birds or see the sun then daylight savings will likely be the saviour you are hoping for. My one recommendation to you would be black your little ones room out and this will help minimise these issues in the future. There is unfortunately the other little ones who will keep waking early despite the transition. This is because there is a deeper lying issue. Something else needs to be addressed and honestly there are multiple things that can be at play. This is where I would look through the rest of their environment, their feeding or diet and their routine.
Dream Winks is a holistic approach so if the magic daylight savings time change doesn’t do the trick then the whole puzzle needs to be looked at and once address that’s when it all comes together to see great sleep.
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