How do I prep for daylight savings?
This weekend in the US is daylight savings, so you’ve likely seen an onslaught of social media posts on how to prepare your baby for the time change. Tips will range from fine-tuning nap times and bed times in 15-minute increments to shifting your whole day by an hour, complete with tables to calculate wake windows for each stage of babyhood.
Setting aside the fact that both wake windows and daylight savings are essentially social constructs designed to stress us out, there really is no need to spend the whole week doing complicated nap math. Because, at the end of the day, babies are going to do what they want.
Some babies love routines and schedules. For those babies, maybe adjusting their sleep schedule slowly over a week makes sense. But if you missed that the time was going to change this weekend and are just finding out now, don’t sweat it! You may spend a few days getting back on track, but now you can anticipate a few rough bedtimes and wake ups and plan accordingly.
Some babies saw your carefully planned schedule and said they were going to wake up at 4am anyway, no matter what you do. Winging it is a valid strategy here. Your baby hasn’t read any of the baby sleep memos and likely never will, so you can stress less and just see what happens.
There’s no way to control your baby’s sleep. All you can do it respond. So, regardless of how you conquer the time change, here are some tips you can universally apply, no matter your baby’s temperament.
Front load your days. If you are facing tough bedtimes and early wake ups, make it a point to prioritize all your necessary tasks towards the beginning of he day. Laundry, errands, even making meals can be shifted to the morning and early afternoons. Of course, you’re probably already running on low sleep, so the next thing you should do is
Find something small that brings you joy. Is it a special face mask you can throw on during breakfast? Your favorite coffee order during the morning errand run? A podcast or audiobook you’ve bene looking forward to for when your baby inevitably falls asleep in the car during errands? Have a small list going of things that will give you a dopamine hit so you can reward yourself when you’re feeling down.
Take rest when you can. We can’t always have the time to nap, ut even just closing your eyes and taking some deep breaths can help you reset your nervous system. Or, if you have time to nap but drank too much coffee to actually fall asleep, find a guided yoga nidra session from YouTube or your favorite mindfulness app. Yoga nidra is also known as yogic sleep, and it’s a great way to give your mind and body a rest without sleeping. Plus, you might find yourself relaxing enough that you fall asleep anyway!
The bottom line: you are not a “bad mom” if you don’t have a spreadsheets for a one-hour time change. Your village is here to help you pivot, not help you calculate math at 4am.
You can’t plan your baby’s sleep, but you can plan your postpartum. Download my free postpartum planning checklist, and plan how to thrive in your fourth trimester.
