Saturday, April 10, 2010

5am - There should be laws against it...

Is it just me, or does daylight savings completely turn the entire universe topsy turvy? A week ago, NSW finally acknowledged that Summer is now a distant memory and that by 7am, you really shouldn't be needing to turn lights on... and turned back the clock one hour.

Normally, (ie. before a child entered my life) I would have enjoyed the extra bit of sleep-in and lamented the loss of extra daylight for the impending Winter. But this year, Fern awoke at 5am and screeched for her morning bottle not caring the slightest that is the one day of the year that a sleep in is a god given RIGHT, not a luxury!

I forgave her for her misdemeanor, and assumed it might take 24 hours or so for her to adjust to the new schedule. That first day, though legitimately we had been up since before mentioned ungodly hour, I swear there were 43 hours instead of 25. By about 3pm, hubby and I were crawling the walls at a complete loss of what to do with ourselves!

Anyway, the punchline of this whinge is that ever since daylight savings ended my daughter has:

a. Woken up punctually at 5am and
b. Finally learnt my name for the first time in 15 months and is making up for lost time by shouting it like a broken ACDC record for as long as it takes for me to stumble bleary eyed into her room with a bottle in hand. Because no one denies my daughter her morning bottle. I would DARE you to. Shudder. As much as I hate being woken by my alarm clock, there is something more than mildly fingernails-on-blackboard worse about being raised from my deep slumber with the sound of "MUUUUM! MUMMY! MUUUM! MUMMY! MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!" resonating from my daughter's room.

The devil reincarnated
My darling daughter with her morning bottle - don't dare speak to her til she's done... just look at the LOOK on her face.

Of course, the knock-on effect is that my husband can slowly slide one eye open, fix it upon me and declare "she wants YOU, mum!" before rolling back over to sleep. Even our coffee machine (set on a timer doesn't switch on til 6.30am dammit!


Girrrrls I need your help! Will Fern get over this fierce loyalty to the old time-zoning or will I be watching Teletubbies at 5am for the rest of my life?? Any advice? Words of solace? An offer of earplugs, perhaps??

x

6 comments:

  1. hahaha...oh boy..I hear ya sista..LOUD AND CLEAR!
    Jacq went through the same episodes..but now wakes up anywhere between 5.30 -6.30am...and yes..went through the same hair pulling episode at 2am..and he was up for 3 hours before he went back to bed again!! GAWD!!

    What I did do..was give him his bottle..and put him back to bed in his cot with his bottle...just to see wheither I would be graced with another hours sleep...and it worked as he nodded off again once he finished drinking..but not the next time I tried...darnit!
    I really dont know what to suggest darling?? Sometimes you just got to be a bit stern and let them cry it out a bit...but it may just be that this is poor little Ferns new wake up time..and you need to embrace the teletubbies...lol

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  2. Yep, I hear you too.
    Will is still out of wack. He's not waking as early as Fern, but he's now 5.45am not his usual 6.45 but I don't know when to put him back down, if I should get him up or give him a bottle, leave him to play in his cot.... if you figure it out, let me know :)
    Jxx

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  3. Thanks Anna - yep I like the ole 'bottle in cot and hope for extra sleep' trick, and it does work for us... sometimes. But it makes me nervous too, that I am setting myself up for a baby that thinks she can scream any time of the night and be given a bottle. And that would be worse than a 5am wakeup!

    Janette, I knowwwww! Why don't babies come with manuals dammit?!

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  4. OMG I feel your pain! With the exception of Day 1 (5am also!), we've been slowly dealing with the drama that is daylight savings. Our problem is more how loooonnngg the day is now, and she's a right monster by about 5 at night. Nightmares!!
    Can also relate to the name calling... my angel hasn't muttered an intelligable word since birth, and yesterday in the midst of her cries to not have an arvo nap she started howling "Mama, Mama". As if I could resist getting her up!!!
    Good luck xx

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  5. You get words of empathy from these quarters.

    It's taken the Bebito til today to readjust his body clock and we tried slowly easing him towards the change by putting him to bed 10 minutes later every day for a few days til it was close to 8pm on the Saturday night. Didn't work! He's too clever for our own good.

    She will adjust slowly, I promise! And by the time she does, let's hope that daylight savings isn't about to restart! :)

    Bless their little cotton socks! :)

    xo

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  6. After reading this post and all the comments, I'm glad that the voting went against daylight savings here in WA - sounds like too much re-adjusting to new times for little ones!! Hope you find a solution for Fern's new waking hour!! x

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