Twice every year the United States, and many other countries around the world, perform a ritual dating all the way back to the ancient Romans (that's even older than my parents). This practice, known alternately as
Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the US, "summer time" in the United Kingdom, requires us to adjust our clocks forwards or backwards one hour depending on the time of year.
"Spring forward, fall back" has become a common mantra for those of us who have difficulty remembering which way is which. In spring and the summer we get an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, while in the fall and winter months, it gets dark as early as 5pm (here in Nashville at least). While this can be a good thing during the summer months, it really can play havoc with us in the winter. There's a 4X higher incidents of traffic accidents in the fall/winter, farmers have less time in the fields, and my daughter Noelle wakes up one whole hour earlier than normal.
You heard me. We finally got her trained to sleep through the night (only took us 16 months). Then we finally got her to start waking up sometime around 7pm reliably and now the US government perpetrates this on us? She's woken up earlier than 6:30 every morning since DST went into effect. Now mind you, I enjoy spending time with Noelle, especially since she's getting a personality, and I can interact with her. But when you're used to sleeping in until around 7, waking up an hour early is a jarring thing.
Also, in addition to her early rising habits these days, she's learned how to take off her pajamas. That's added an entirely new suite of things that could greet me when I walk into her room in the morning. For example, twice so far this week I've heard her talking to herself saying "my zip, my...zip". This is a bad sign as it means she's managed to unzip her pajamas to some degree or another. Usually she's only gotten the zipper down to her foot, but it seems she's learned how to completely take her pajamas off. What do I see when I walk in but a mostly naked baby with a diaper that's half off. Luckily it was just a wet diaper or I would have started off the day with a bath.
Anyway, just wanted to share with you the joys of parenthood and children who are early risers.
