My husband and I are night owls!
We are night owls…in our 40s…with a two year old toddler!

This year’s Fall Back time change happened the weekend of an admittedly late night holiday…Halloween! 🙂 Thus, the title of this post!

Though our bedtime routine might be a bit later than other families…we’ve always had a good little sleeper, who will put in many hours sleep at night, as well, as a nice nap at day. (Especially since we’ve added DHA gels to his diet.)

Even though we’re attachment parents, with a practice of putting babe to sleep by nursing, I’ve felt I’ve been able to eek out a bit of ‘free’ time for myself after he fell asleep at night…usually!
I mean I do greatly enjoy nursing Bean to sleep…and, at the same time…I slightly resent it! My feelings on this particular topic have been wonderfully captured by Wendy Wisner in a post on her NurseMeMama blog!

In the two years since we’ve had Bean, neither the Spring nor Fall Time Changes have affected us. Though, I had feared our first Fall Back would hurt, it didn’t.
Bean seems to roll with it…in fact, he doesn’t really even change his timing…sort of to my chagrin, as I kind of hoped he’d go to sleep an hour, or at least 45mins earlier, after the time change last weekend. But, nope, we are on the same time and routine as ever, without much negative effect on Bean…expect that one night when he woke up at 4:30am for about 20-30mins!

So, then, why is this time change hurting me (and hubs) so much!?

~ Could it be that, even though Hubs does not have a 9-5er and gets home later, this week is a tight deadline (otherwise known as ‘crunch’) for him and he’s getting home much later!? Even though Bean is still being put to bed at the same time.

~ Could it be that little Bean turned TWO (!) right around Halloween!? And by turning two, a little switch was flipped that upped his development by what seems like 100 fold! He is talking so much now, so active in movement, and thinking so abstractly! It’s completely wonderful! His brain is likely trying to process all this development every night!

~ Could it be that this time last year we were in a totally different climate and geography!? California, then; Oregon, now…the sun is in a different place in the sky, it becomes dusk earlier and faster, and it’s cooler here! (read : cold…which equals hunkering down in a cozy blankey with tea and dreaming of sleep. Ha!)

~ Could it be, as I was reminded by a friend in my mama’s group…that my toddler is still pushing through two of those four hard-core molars!? eek!

~ Could it be that, regardless, Fall Back does seem a little more difficult than Spring Forward?

~ -OR- could it just be that, ummm…ahem, this mama is spending a wee later night trying to catch up on Season 2 of “Orange is the New Black“!?

HA! Have I pinpointed the issue -or- just let out my secret!
Surely, it’s a combo of many things…there are so many variables to add to this year’s Daylight Savings Fall time change! I’m simply so surprised at how it affected us this go around! But, alas, we’ll forge ahead!

So…mamas…how does Daylight Savings affect your family? Do you do anything in preparation of the time change? And…what’s your favorite TV Show Guilty Pleasure!? 🙂

(on a side note : since Halloween, Bean’s favorite word has been “boo!” and he’s been using it in so many smart and funny ways! 🙂 )