Support thread for those dreading the clocks changing in the UK. Sign in here!

[smackapacca]

Just realising that we're in for a few dreadful days/nights.... Clocks changing, fireworks and stinking trick or treaters.

Fireworks upset the dog, but we can keep the TV on. I take the batteries out of the doorbell on Halloween (again - can't be doing with the dog barking) but then there is THE CLOCK CHANGE.

My DC are just under 2 & 4. The 4yo has a sleep clock which works OK but not perfect. This week they have started the day at 6.30am but not come into us until 7 which isn't too bad. They can entertain themselves noisily for 30 minutes.

But next week I can't hope for anywhere near this kind of pattern.

Anyone got good ideas/plans? What does everyone else do??

Can I join you, I too am dreading the clock change and would be interested to hear any tips. I have a DS who is 3 and he should be ok after a few days but I'm seriously dreading it with my DS2 who is 6 months. He currently sleeps 7pm til 5.30am (early but not complaining as he goes right through) but the thought of 4.30 fills me with dread I had thought about pushing his routine back a little each day in the run up to Saturday but he has been unsettled today and missed a nap and ended up I bed an hour EARLY!!! Not a good start to my plan!!

I am shitting it not looking forward to the clock change at all.

DS sleeps 7-6 (ish...) and I have no idea what affect it will have on him or how to deal with it

Not clocks changing, but fireworks.

There was a wedding in a marquee yesterday in a nearby field. At 1.25am [hconfused], they had a load of fireworks. Our 7 month old dog went nuts. Village fireworks party takes place about 300 yards from our house. Can't wait.

It might not be as bad as you think. Last year DD was sleeping 7pm-5.30am - on the night the clocks went back we put her to bed at 7.30 but she still woke at 4.30am, the next night was 5am and by the third night she was back to 7pm-5.30am. It was painful for those first 2 nights but I was shocked by how quickly she adjusted. Hope it's the same this year, she is now sleeping until 6.30 so it should be a little less painful.

Sorry, no helpful advice but just hoping we all have it easier than we think!

Marking my place, I am bloody dreading it as DD (10 months) currently wakes at 4am most mornings and I barely function just about manage now

Yup, have been up with dd2 since 5 and she's beendoing this for months. I go back to work in dec so need to have it sorted by then, just need to find a way to reset her clock somehow as she usually wakes at 2, has a big feed, then 5am is when her day starts. Feel like death most of the time :(

Morning all, 4.30 start today, managed to get DS to doze on me til 6 to keep him quiet and not wake DS1 but I didn't get back to sleep pre-school back on this week (I'm in Scotland) so maybe I'll get a nap later. I need a plan of attack to sort these early risings but I'm too tired to think!

By the way smarty is it not illegal fir fireworks to be let off so late?? I'm in Gretna where there is a wedding nearly every day and there is a curfew for fireworks??? Maybe you need to get someone to take your dog for the night on the 5th, so he isn't scared and doesn't drive you mad barking??

Ooooh, I have experience of this, and it's not good. DS is now 2 and from last year's clock change he woke at 5am instead of his usual 6am for SIX MONTHS. It nearly broke us.

He has a groclock now, which seems to help as he's old enough to understand it.

One tip I have read is to pretend the clocks only change on the Sunday night (if you don't have any plans for the Sunday, that is), not the Saturday, as then at least the day won't seem as long on the Sunday when you have them home all day and have been up since 4am. Does that make any sense?

We're right in the middle of the 18 month sleep regression - DD usually sleeps from 8ish to about midnight but can be up every hour after that. On bad days she's raring to go by 5am as it is. How on earth we manage when the clocks go back is beyond me as we're already on our knees...

Also dreading it. DD has recently gone from 6am wake up to 4.30. That will be 3.30 next week [hshock] [hsad]. Hardly worth going to bed.

PS I miss feeding to sleep... why oh why did it stop working??

Not looking forward to it here either [hsad] DD is 22 months and has been waking at 5 recently. The thought of 4 is nearly enough to start me crying. I'm going to try and push her nap/mealtimes this week but have no hope of it actually working.

That's what I'm doing liskey except last night the tea time nap ended up as bedtime so up earlier than ever today! DS has just had a short nap and is now playing, bottle and bed a bit later tonight, fingers crossed!

Oh I like the tip about pretending the clocks don't change until Sunday night. I go to work on Monday so DH can have the morning shift and then I can 'relieve' him when I get in from work.

I'd never heard that one before.

I muddle mine up for a week or so beforehand by being out of our routine and staying up late. Then they settle nicely into the new time.

It works for us as ds1 has just had a week off school for the holidays so it is easy to come and go as we please.

DS1 can cope ok with it without doing this, but 19month old ds2 seems to get tricked by it too

DD now running a temperature - that'll throw out any plans i make nicely!

OK - staying up late this week. That's doable. Also getting up late too as we don't have to be anywhere before 10am.

What plans can we all put in place if we do have a horriffic early start on Sunday?

We have a party in the afternoon which will be nice. However the morning is likely to feel sooooo long.

Somebody on here last year suggested not changing the clocks until Sunday lunchtime, would that work for anyone? That is what I am thinking of doing, I will try and give DD a short daytime nap so she is ready for the early bedtime on Sunday night and hope for the best. She is almost 1 and usually the most fabulous sleeper I have ever come across (last Sat night she slept for 15 hours!) but has taken to waking up hourly from around 2am this week and either standing up and laughing or screaming, so i dread to think what will happen this weekend (wibble).

DS just stirring now at 7.10!!!! maybe my cunning plan worked or maybe it was a fluke?! Who knows, but two extra hours kip have made me feel almost human!!!

@ sowlers

DD turns into screaming devil child if we try and delay bedtime.

I might just have to suck it up for a few nights

I delayed bedtime but managed an extra nap at teatime,easier with a 6 month old though. You wait and see, DH is home tomorrow and said he will do the early morning, bet DS sleeps til 8!!!

I used to dread it, but don't find it so bad now. We just put the clocks back sometime during the day on Saturday (around lunchtime, usually), so that we effectively keep the boys (4 and 1) up for an extra hour that day. They don't usually wake a whole hour later on the Sunday morning, maybe half an hour, but by Sunday night/Monday morning it's generally sorted.

And of course you can try cheering yourself up by thinking about the clocks going forward in spring, which is luurrvely. If your kids normally wake up at 7am then they actually wake up at 8am on the Sunday, and as long as you put your clocks forward straight after they've gone to bed on the Saturday night, then you go to bed an hour earlier yourself and feel like you've had a MASSIVE lie in.

What plans can we all put in place if we do have a horriffic early start on Sunday?

Go to church!

Not sure about babies, but toddlers upwards - slip mid morning snack, lunch and dinner half an hour latter and dawdle slightly over desert. Long bath and a video with the curtains shut. With any luck you should be able to slip bedtime up to an hour latter without DCs really noticing.