What's in an hour?

Oh how hubby and I fondly remember those blissful pre-children days, around the end of October you suddenly realise the clocks are going back and you'll get an extra hour in bed. We didn't have to plan for it in advance, we used to have long lie-in's on a weekend anyway, so it was just an added bonus really. Oh except when we turned up to the pub one year for Sunday lunch, only to realise it was 11am not 12pm and we would have to wait another hour for food!

Well, the last 3 years have changed my view on clock changes. I HATE them!! When you have a child that wakes at 7am most days, that means when the clocks go back they will be waking at 6am!

Laila has never been a late sleeper anyway, so I think the only proper and true lie-in I have had since she was born was when I was away at a friends without my babies! The lie-in's hubby lets me have once a weekend do not count, as it is nigh on impossible to sleep through 2 energetic toddlers jumping all over you, your bed, their beds, spilling your glass of water on you, shoving the very hungry caterpillar under your nose and handing you your glasses at the same time.....trouping downstairs, arguing over what cereal they want, arguing over what they get to watch on TV and arguing over who was playing with the toy first! But I bury myself under the covers deeper and deeper until I eventually get woken by a tired looking hubby at 9am. He gets the same lie-in on a Sunday morning, but like all men he can genuinely sleep through all that toddler noise!

I have tried to follow my sister-in-laws advice of starting one week before the clock change and delaying everything by 10 mins per day, so when the clocks actually change you don't even notice. Err, this is ok when you have kids like hers who no matter what time you put them to bed they sleep 12 hours. This is the area where my children seem to malfunction! When my kids go to bed late, they wake up earlier than usual and when they go to bed early they sleep better and till a half-decent time of the morning, as long as it's post 7am I'm not too fussy.
So I've given up on attempting to control the uncontrollable and what will be will be. I fully expect to be bleary eyed for most of next week.