How To Get Your Baby To Sleep During Daylight Savings

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Now, that I’m a mom of two making sure that our family sleeps is a priority more than ever. It’s also more difficult than ever. Balancing the sleep patterns and shaping healthy sleep habits for both a toddler and newborn can seem like a never ending cycle but it is possible. To maintain a good night’s sleep for your baby during daylight savings time there’s some small changes you can make to make sure there’s not a huge hiccup in their sleep schedule.

START A FEW DAYS BEFORE
Since Daylight Savings is on Sunday getting ahead of it on Thursday or Friday is huge. The last thing you want to do is start to adjust the day of. You’ll kick yourself. And you’ll be so sleep deprived you’ll probably miss. Be sure to keep the same schedule. It’s tempting to let your baby (or even yourself) sleep in “just this one time” but doing it right when Daylight Savings starts is a set up for failure. Stay on schedule even through the yawns and fatigue – in a week you’ll be glad you did because everything will feel back to normal and you won’t have to pull teeth just to get your baby to sleep.

KEEP WAKE UP TIME CONSISTENT
No one’s perfect so as much as you may to stay on the perfect schedule, things happen. Mostly because babies are unpredictable. So if your little one ends up going to bed a little later because they’re having a hard time adjusting, make sure the wake up time doesn’t change even with daylight savings. The shift is really what time you wake up and get exposed to daylight. Once you get your baby up and they see daylight their body will slowly but surely adjust to the shift. Keeping the wake up time consistent will make it easier for them to fall asleep at night.

MAINTAIN YOUR BEDTIME ROUTINE
Anyone who has gotten their baby on a successful sleeping schedule knows it’s because of a bedtime routine. This is HUGE! This is how we were able to get Maizah sleeping through the night by 3 months and we plan on doing the same thing with Caliana. The format we use is bath, bond, book, bed. Bath time is exactly what it sounds like. Bond time is humming or softly talking while giving baby a massage with lotion and dressing them. We love using JOHNSON’s Bedtime Baby Lotion during bond time because it releases NATURALCALM essences which is a special blend of gentle and calming aromas. Then it’s book time – babies loves when you read to them. Doing this consistently becomes a cue to them that it’s sleep time. And then bedtime. Depending on your house this will different, but for us we pray and it’s lights out since Maizah is three. For Cali, we eat, pray, then swaddle and hum a song until drowsy then lay it down.

Of course, some nights are better than others but maintaining your groove when Daylight Savings hits is so important so your baby’s sleep isn’t completely thrown off.

If you’re having other sleep issues with your little one be sure to check out babysleep.com which was developed by the Pediatric Sleep Council.

Know that you’re not alone, mama. Establishing a healthy sleep schedule is far from easy but important for your baby and will be so worth it in the long run. Stay consistent (even on the hard days) and you’ll reap the benefits.