So Nice We Did It Twice

Stolen from Laugh It Out

I recently reported on Daylight Savings in America and was a little duplicitous. We were actually in America and experienced Daylight Savings as jet lag savings. Lucy had adjusted somewhat to East Coast time but Jacob kept getting up at 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. He was slowly working his way to later times but made a huge boost when the clocks changed. We were soon on local time, to the relief of all.

Now we have experienced the time change again in England after flying home on a red-eye flight the day before. Saturday was a tough day that included a long afternoon nap and mostly normal bed time for all. The real problem happened on Sunday.

We woke up Sunday morning at 10:30 local time, figuring in the daylight savings change. That meant we weren't ready in time for 11:30 Mass (the latest morning Mass) and would have to go at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. at different parishes. We discussed it over brunch. We settled on a short nap ending at 3:30 and Mass at 5.

Then we went to Valley Gardens to enjoy the weather and stay awake for a while before nap time. We packed a picnic lunch that was lots of fun, but that's a story for a happier blog post. I will continue with the grueling horror.

We napped as planned and went to church. After church we spent some time at a nearby playground, finally heading home for a little dinner and bed time.

Dinner was okay though minimal since they'd had a potluck after Mass. Jacob didn't eat much so he had to make up for lost nutrition. Bath time, stories, and prayers all went fine. Then we tried to put the children to sleep...

Which was an epic, all night struggle. Lucy didn't want Daddy to put her to bed, so Mommy read one last story. I hung out with Jacob reading his last story. Jacob really wanted Mommy, so we switched. Lucy really, really wanted Mommy, so we switched again. By this point lights were out but no heads seemed to be in contact with pillows.

After a few more switches, Lucy decided she wanted to sleep in another room, specifically Mommy and Daddy's room. She cried. She wailed. She shouted. She got a time out. That mellowed her out a bit. She went willingly back into her room with my promise that she could lay on my lap for a while. She started to drift off. I waited to make sure she was asleep then transferred her to her bed. She woke up, started crying, and demanded to sleep in a different room. We went through an intense negotiation over a second time out. She finally acquiesced when I promised to stay with her until she fell asleep. The time was about 11:00 p.m.

I stayed with her till 12:15, when I thought she was asleep. I opened her door quietly, slipped out, shut the door. She suddenly started flopping around in bed. Within two minutes she was up and crying again. I went back in for another round of "you can sleep on me and hopefully I'll get to sneak out again later." Later turned out to be 2:30. Ugh.

Jacob was up a couple of times while I was on Lucy duty, so my wife was not free to rest either.

We got out of bed at 7 a.m. with the hope of resetting everyone's clocks. As I write (9:30 p.m.) Jacob is still not asleep and Mommy is still in with Lucy. Hopefully tonight's story will have a different ending.

Saving Daylight

Daylight Savings has hit the United States on Sunday, March 11, 2012. This is the time when the clocks "spring forward" and 1:59 a.m. becomes 3:00 a.m. in only a minute. Most people complain about this change because they lose an hour of sleep. On the other hand, there is plenty of daylight after work to have fun in the outdoors.

You'd think it would be a problem for a zombie parent too, but we think we've found an upside. When the clock jumps forward, no longer do our darling children wake up at 5:30 a.m. or earlier. The time is magically changed into 6:30 a.m., which to our way of thinking is a great bonus. Hopefully they stay that way and don't revert to getting up earlier.

The only bad news for these zombie parents is that the change is not effective in the UK until March 25. And the whole issue of having daylight after work is a little ridiculous when the sun doesn't go down till 9 or 10 p.m. in the middle of the summer. No wonder there's no drive-in movie theatres here!