Time change and meetup debriefing

Time change: As we all know, the tough part of the time change isn't the first morning, it's the second morning. I hope Standard Time wasn't hideous this morning--it should be getting progressively better the rest of this week.

Thos of us who hate Standard Time because it's dark so early in the evening are trying to take solace in Candletime. I bought some new candles yesterday to try to soothe the pain of having it dark before 6 pm. Ugh. If you want to post pictures of your candles on Twitter, tag them with hashtag #candletime so we can all search and see them.

Data point: This morning was not much of an issue for my kids. My younger one woke up too early but playedd video games until his brother and I were up. No trauma resulted to anyone. There is hope that when your kids get older things get easier.

How's your time change going?

 

Meetups: My Ask Moxie meetup in Ann Arbor was too cold but fun. I met two readers, one of whom has kids at the same school my kids are at! Small world.

So far I've heard that there was another meetup that happened in Modi'in, Israel. Did any of the other meetups happen? How did they go?

Comments

[Ann Z]

My two year old was up at 3:30, and slept really fitfully until around 5:30, she normally gets up at 6:30. My 6 year old was up by 5:45, she's usually up at 6. So not fun, but not as bad as previous years, and today I had a 7:30 am meeting (which I'm still bitter about) and had to be out of the house by 6:45 anyway, so the early wake ups ended up being useful. Still hoping that tomorrow morning will be back to something resembling normal.

I went to the coffee shop for the Minneapolis meet and didn't see anyone else there, though I'm very bad at introducing myself. There was a group that left at 3:15, I don't think it was the meetup, but it could have been. I did strike up a conversation with another mom about things to do in the Twin Cities during the winter, and I picked up coffee beans to help with this morning, and my 2 year old had a great time playing in the play area. It was a nice way to spend part of the afternoon.

[pennifer]

I wasn't able to make it across the bay to the East Bay meet-up, dunno if it happened. It was an amazing day, weather-wise, so people may have been distracted. Time change is not horrible, but my guy is very tired. We've got his bedtime shifted no problem, but he is not close to finishing the morning shift, despite having begun last Friday. He really needs that extra 45-60 minutes of sleep, given that he's already not much of a sleeper. Soon, I hope, but it could take a few weeks, easily.

[MJ]

Mine had a rougher morning on Sunday. My 18-month-old daughter was up at 4:30 (albeit she went back to sleep in my bed, sprawled on top of me, pulling my hair...so I didn't go back to sleep). My almost-4-year-old was up at 5:55, but is usually up around 6, so it wasn't horrible.

This morning, my daughter slept until 5:30 (progress?) and my son until 6:15.

My bigger issue is my daughter has been getting up around midnight every night, and won't go back to sleep unless I sit and hold her for a minimum of one hour. That combined with the time change has been brutal on me. Not sure if her issues are the 18-month sleep regression or what. She's hardcore teething, cutting some molars, which may have started it a few weeks ago, but now it seems habitual.

[Blanche]

I was not prepared for last night / this morning to be worse.

LO didn't crash until 11:30pm (about 3.5 hours later than she should have) and was up before 6 this morning. She crashed in the car for 20 minutes on our way home from music class and did not transition into the house. I'm guessing that's it for naps today & I'm really hoping that bedtime tonight is much earlier & less traumatic for all! At almost 28 months, she still needs the sleep & the adults in the house need some downtime.

[Dawn]

My youngest sister got married on Saturday, so we were all screwed up from being out late Friday and Saturday anyway, in addition to the craziness earlier in the week because of the storm. Standard time just made the whole thing worse...my just five year old hasn't slept all night in her bed since Friday. My 9 year old is so tired from all the excitement that she doesn't seem too messed up by the time change this go around. Things could be worse, so I'm going to stop complaining and hope my younger daughter is back to normal tonight!

[Charisse]

Thankfully the 8-year-old feels the same about that time change as we do, which is: extra hour of sleep in the morning where it belongs - yum! So, all happy.

[Lisa]

Data point of hope:

Those of you who've been here a while know that we endured all kinds of Sleep Hell for the first four years, then it got progressively better for ages 5 and 6... which was good, because my memory had started collapsing. I now have most of my brain back.

This year, we let bedtime slip a bit for the past week (easy to do - just one more chapter...), and the transition was painless for all involved. This morning, T and I woke up about 45 min. earlier than scheduled; he used the extra time do do some Lego building, while I drank tea, made oatmeal, and puttered about online. E. got an extra hour of sleep and still got T. to school on time.

It does get so much better.

[MJ]

@Lisa, thanks for the ray of hope. I'm feeling lately like I am doomed to never sleep again!

[e_chendo]

@pennifer, the East Bay meetup did happen--four of us and most of our kiddos hung out. It was great to meet people. Will add you to the loop for next time...

[TodayWendy]

Toronto meetup happened - at least Lin & I managed to find one another. Turns out the Allan Gardens conservatory is just full of moms with babies & little kids, so I had to do quite a bit of asking people if they were the ones I was supposed to meet...I wished I had a giant "Ask Moxie" button to wear.

[Jstar]

I also attended the East Bay meetup, which was great.

The time change has been horrible, horrible, horrible. As I complained to my fellow East Bay-ers, my 5-month-old and 4-year-old are both early risers and so it was that much worse when 5:30 turned into 4:30. We are in the middle of sleep training the baby, who last night last night decided to wake up hourly all night long instead of just at 4am, 4:30, and 5 for good as usual. So much crying! So yes, the second morning of Standard Time was worse than the first for us.

Bleary-eyed, grumpy, and exhausted this morning, I told my 4-yo the time change was a bad idea and we needed to write a letter to ask "them" to stop doing it. Today on the way home from school she said, "Mommy, we need to remember to buy a card for the people so we can tell them about the time change."

My husband leaves for a work trip on Wednesday for three days, and I look forward to joining in the candletime celebration after the kids go to bed...

[Bird]

Kid the Younger, who usually sleeps until 7, was up at 5:30 a.m. today. Kid the Older, who usually sleeps until 6:15, was up at 7 today. Proof positive that kids just don't make any sort of sense.

[latte]

Time change so far has been a mixed bag for us.
Squirmy is 10+ mths and sleep is usually baaaaaddddd. He's just way too busy earning his nickname.
Had to be very proactive to do the switch.
Added 15 min every 2 days for a week or so....to naps, to bedtime, meals, walks, everything. About 10 days of confusion, some naps where it took me 45 min to settle him to sleep, and then he slept for....wait for it....15 min!!! whoooo!!!
I would be laughing if it weren't so frustrating....
Yesterday and today were actually decent...but now that I"ve written that surely the sleep gods will punish me.....

[Latte]

Should also add that Squirmy had been fighting sleep so badly all week that we decided to have a "time change" party sat night. A few friends came over for dinner and we just let them all play and romp with Squirmy until he was yawning in his Jolly Jumper. Kept him up about an hour longer than usual and he slept well most of the night. Oh and by the way I'd love to punch Weissbluth in his "sleep begets sleep" parts.....my baby forgot to read that chapter.... Waiting for relief from nap purgatory....

[Tine]

I didn't make it to the Minneapolis meetup (sorry, Ann Z.) -- but I meant to! I looked up from a gigantic pumpkin-roasting-and-pureeing project that afternoon to discover that there were 5 children in my house (only 2 were mine) and it was already 4:30. Oops. :(

[Susan]

It is dinnertime that is hardest for me with this time change thing! I don't remember experiencing this before. I think spouse, kid, and I were all needing a little more sleep so going to bed at usual time (not late time!) and waking up usual time is going just fine. But, come about 4:30/5pm, wow is there a hunger! I'm trying to slowly delay it by 10 minutes each day but the kid especially is really super-hungry beginning at 4:30pm. Anyone else experiencing that?

[Vacationland Mom]

@Susan, YES, our 2 year old is in meltdown mode pretty much right after he gets home from daycare. If we don't/can't head it off at the pass, whining and outright screaming ensues, and he is unhappy no matter what we do. But we're adjusting.

[Latte]

Why is Lauren reading his ex's blog anyways? He has no control over what she writes anyways and that time and mental energy could be spent on something much more productive. Yeah ex's comments are hurtful and in poor taste but probably not malicious. Besides Lauren Sid say the divorce was "emotionally messy" so there is surely some baggage left over for both of them. And if Lauren feels the need to have his own blog to make sure friends and family know how capable and loving he is,well I just think that is a little sad. Love your kids! That's the best use of your time Lauren.

[ran ban wayfarer]

Hey! I might be able to make this! :) I'm not far from Ann Arbor. I have no idea if I'll have the kids with me or not.

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