You finally think you've cracked it, your child is in a settled sleeping patten after months of hard work and then bang... the clocks change.
On Sunday, October 25 the clocks will go back one hour, a change that fills many parents cross the country with dread as an early wake-up time becomes even earlier!
But there are things you can do to try and minimise the impact it has on your child and you.
We've enlisted the help of Belfast sleep expert Susan Wallace who runs Settled Petals.
Here she explains how you can start adapting your baby's sleep schedule a week before the clocks change.
Susan said: "In order to minimise this disruption, parents have a choice. They can either adjust their childs’ schedule by simply shifting bedtime by one hour the night before, or if this is going to be too disruptive for your child (which it is for many) I recommend shifting their entire schedule – including naps and feeding times by 10 minutes a day for 6 days.
"So for example, if your child currently falls asleep at 7pm, you may want to adjust bedtime as follows:
Monday 19th – 7pm
Tuesday 20th – 7.10pm
Wednesday 21st- 7.20pm
Thursday 22nd – 7.30pm
Friday 23rd – 7.40pm
Saturday 24th – 7.50pm
Sunday 25th – 7pm
"For children who are very sensitive to schedule change and who may begin to wake early despite this technique, then I recommend refraining from bringing naps forward to compensate – whilst this may prevent overtiredness initially it is likely to promote an earlier schedule and encourages the early wake time to ‘set’.
"One or two days of tiredness as your child adjusts, is often worth preventing the promotion of long term early rising."
For more information on how Settled Petals can support your family visit their website or Settled Petals on Facebook.
