Pre-baby days, this was probably your favorite day of the year: rolling the clocks back an hour meant an extra hour of sleep! For new moms, however, this is often not the case – instead of a 6am wakeup time, your baby might be ready to take on the day an hour earlier. Read on for our tips on how to make the Fall Back time change a smooth transition for you and your little one.
Start about 5-6 days before the time change and adjust your baby’s schedule by doing everything 10min later than usual each day. Once the day comes to turn back the clock, your baby will essentially be doing everything one hour later than usual, so that when she wakes up Sunday morning she should be right on track!
As always, every baby is different and some are more adaptable than others. If your baby is less sensitive to the changes in her day, you can make this shift in 2-4 days by pushing everything 15-30mins each day instead of the 10min as explained above. It’s the same idea to shift the schedule so baby is doing everything one hour ahead, just with less days of preparation leading up to the time change.
If you don’t already have black-out shades in your baby’s room, now would be a good time to install them. Darkness can help increase melatonin production (the “sleep” hormone) and just because the sun will rise earlier with the time change, doesn’t mean your baby needs to as well.
As with every transition it can take time for your baby to adjust, so always try to stay patient through these changes and usually things fall back into place in a week or so.
