AIBU to not adjust my baby's routine to different time zone for two weeks?

[BiggerThanTheSunAndMoon]

We live 4 hours behind GMT. DS1 is 6 months old, goes to bed at around 7.30pm, which is about an hour or two after dark, and wakes up at about 6.30am.

In July, we will be visiting England for two weeks. I googled the whole thing about getting him to adjust to the new time zone, but we have wondered, is it really necessary? Why not put him to bed at the same time "biologically", which would be 4 hours later according to the clock (11.30pm, an hour or two after dark) and let him sleep til 10.30am (it's a holiday for us so we certainly wouldn't complain about this!).

Then, when we return just under two weeks later, we don't have to worry about changing everything back again. Is there a reason why we shouldn't do this? It seems like he won't know the difference, and it'll make our lives easier/give us a lie-in. Am I missing something?

You can try but your son's internal clock is responsive to daylight/day length and may readjust itself.

We do the same when we go to Spain but obviously that's only an hour difference.
I wouldnt want to keep mine up until 11.30pm as I wouldn't get any free evening time but if you don't mind that then it's worth a shot.

As PP says, it's a nice idea, but may well go awry in practise! Plus are you going to keep all feeds etc to the current schedule? That could be a pain.

I wouldn't stress about it too much either way and let him go with the flow.

We did the same when we went to the Middle East (4 hours ahead). DS went to bed at about 1030pm. Worked brilliantly for us in that we got a lovely lie in although not great if you want to be up and out of the house early in the morning. It did mean we could go out for dinner in the evening though.

We have been away twice from UK to Europe, where it is 1 hour ahead. We have kept our routine pretty much on UK time (not on purpose but as we are on holiday meals etc tend to be later and therefore so do naps. Both times I have been hopeful of a lie in and both times she has continued to wake at 6/6:30 (I.e. 5/5:30 UK time) and make up the difference in longer naps. She can clearly tell the time! Fingers crossed it works for you, or somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, no harm in trying at first and then readjusting if it doesn't work, I suppose!

your son's internal clock is responsive to daylight/day length

Right, and here he goes to bed about 2 hours after dark, which in England in July would be about 11.30pm right? So even the daylight wants us to do it!

We tried this on a trip.
He still woke up at 7am local time

Right, and here he goes to bed about 2 hours after dark, which in England in July would be about 11.30pm right? So even the daylight wants us to do it!

It's more about the light in the morning. Here it's light from about 5am (rough guess), and his body clock may not let him sleep 6.5 hours past that. But as you say no harm in trying.

All you need then is a blackout blind or dark curtains for the morning.
On holidays mine stays up until midnight and sleeps til 10am, just naturally. It's great.

Is his sleep pattern really that set at 6 months?

DD is 6 months and her bedtime varies between 6pm and 10pm.

It could work op, but I reckon the light mornings will work their magic.

It's not sleeping 2 hours after dark that's the problem. Sunrise here today was 4.30am. It's the sleeping 6 ours after the sun has risen that's going to catch you out!

Right, I'm googling "cheap blackout curtains UK" as we speak

Is his sleep pattern really that set at 6 months?

In terms of when he goes to bed and when he gets up, yes. I think most 6-month-olds have a set bedtime, don't they? I'm not saying he sleeps through (not at all!), but he does go to bed at the same time every day.

Buy this op it's fab
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Worth a try. It has worked well for us for up to an hour or two. Any more than that and the little sods darlings wake up at 7am on the second day anyway and then spend the day whining because they are tired!

neither of mine had a set bedtime at 6 months! They just weren't always tired at the same gime. We had quite varied days though as sometimes we be out all day and soemtimes get up later etc.

Even now they're older late nights don't seem to result in them waking any later. Seem hardwired to wake about 6.30!!

I'd just plan to go with whatever you're doing when you're awat. So if it suits to have a late bedtime initially and you usually have a set time stick with that but don't worry too much if the other times of the day change.

Have a lovely time :)

We did it in the middle east with my 3 yr old, it worked really well. At 6 months we had no routine really!

Anytime I have taken my kids to DH home country in Asia which is 4hr ahead time difference I stuck to uk time. So that we are not messed up when we get back. They go to bed at 12/1 and wake up at about 11/12. So basically 8/9 uk time for bed and wake up 7/8. It works really well for us a generally all family we r visiting stay up late anyway.

Just make sure the room is dark when the sun comes up.

Didn't work for us. We went to the other side of the world (15 hr time difference from home) and for the first few days DD slept late and it was heaven. By day 4 she'd adjusted to daylight/night hours at our destination and was back waking at 6:30 AM

We did this a few times when our DS was small, it worked a treat. He's always been a good sleeper though which helped.

Hey OP! We live in Aus and have traveled between Aus and UK a few times with our toddler so experience of transitioning between time zones. This might work (especially as your baby is young and not so set in routine) but our experience is that the body clock also responds to food so you would need to keep feeds on the same schedule too.

the body clock also responds to food so you would need to keep feeds on the same schedule too

Oh we read that too. At the moment, his feeding is much less of a routine than his sleeping (we've only just started weaning) so he's mostly just breastfeeding every few hours still at this point. Hoping that will work in our favour!