When Sleep Deprivation Takes Its Toll (Ask Rachel)

Annie writes....

I have a terrible sleeper who wakes up 3-4 times a night. The problem is that she needs a pacifier to fall asleep and will not sleep in her crib. She only sleeps in the big bed with me and wakes up crying multiple times. I have to give her the pacifier and put her down to bed each time. I tried sleep training a few times when she was younger, but she has so much stamina! 

She is 15 months old already and I'm tired and sleep deprived. This is affecting my relationship with my husband and my mom and I just don't know what to do anymore. I love my daughter more than anything and I don't want her to get sick from not getting enough sleep or feel neglected sitting alone crying in the room by herself. I am very conflicted and upset. Motherhood shouldn’t be this hard!0

Annie, if I could, I'd switch places with you for a few nights so you could get some much needed shut-eye. Going 15 months on fragmented sleep is tough, even for those that can get by with very little sleep. But if you are like most people who only function about 20% on crummy sleep (and of course, the kind and patient side of us is in the missing 80%!), you are probably feeling like you've just ran 5 marathons while being starved half to death. In other words, you likely feel like total crap. No wonder you feel it is affecting your relationships with others. It's hard to be nice and have patience and enjoy other people's company when you feel run down. In fact, I pretty much go from really nice to half-devil, despite my best efforts, on little sleep--one of the reasons I personally take sleep and children seriously! Most of us simply don't function well on little sleep, and that means we can't be the kind of parent (and spouse and sister etc) we want to be. It has nothing to do with toughing it up. There's a reasons there are a bunch of not so nice things correlated to a lack of sleep (for baby and us)--it is a necessity of life. Completely ignoring this need we have doesn't make us a better parent, it just makes us tired--and cranky!

The crazy thing about motherhood is that no matter how much you try to prepare yourself for it, you can't quite comprehend how hard it's going to be. Not only is there the physical effort involved while taking care of someone 24 hours a day who can hardly do anything on their own, but the emotional effort is immense. If you're anything like me, you pretty much worry every living second of your life about your child and their future. Not exactly relaxing, eh? 

You email reminds me a lot of myself when my oldest, Joshua, was a young baby. I was so conflicted over what to do. I had different parts of me pulling me in every which direction (as well as guilt from various parenting philosophies pulling me every which way). I wanted to be the best parent possible and let my son know that he was always loved. But I also wanted the both of us to get some sleep so I could function like a human being again. 

Figuring out what is best for you, your baby and your family is a tough thing to do. I personally think it involves a balance between everyone's needs. If you forget one person, then the scale tips and everyone suffers. When you find a good balance, everyone does better overall. Obviously it's normal to have a lot of needs not being fully met right after a baby is born, but the point is to try to keep everyone and their needs in mind. 

Right now your lack of sleep is getting pretty far out of balance. It is affecting you, your relationships, and likely how well you are able to interact with your daughter. That's often what happens with a new baby, and even as they get older. You want the best for your child and it's easy to neglect everything else in the process. 

It's also easy to feel confused and guilt infused from the various perspectives (and mommy-wars) out there, making knowing what to do even more difficult to decide. You may even be getting the message that if you just listen to your intuition and give your baby the snuggling she needs she'll sleep well. Or you may be getting the message that you simply have to deal with your situation and 'stop complaining' . I think you already know what I think about dealing with the situation and  'toughing it out'. For a parent whose struggling, it kind of feels like suggesting they take the long cut when there is a short cut to bliss sitting just two steps in front of you. As for intution (or whatevever you want to call it), I think that takes a part in what you decide to do but isn't the only deciding factor. I don't see why we should avoid getting knowledge from various sources--'knowledge is power', and all. And certainly if you are someone who prayers, that is a great thing to do too.

The nice thing about choosing an approach to teach your child to sleep is that there are lots of methods available out there that you can fit to your family's needs and situation. You can choose one that involves crying alone, crying in your presence, or no crying. You can choose a method that's super quick, or one that makes slower changes. As long as you are consistent, you'll likely get some good results--and your old self back in the process. Yes, you are considering your own needs in this process (as well as your child's) and that's ok. You are important too, and thinking about yourself DOES NOT make you a bad person or a selfish mother. In fact, I'd say just the opposite. And guess what, your daughter really will love you just as much once you are done with sleep training. Really, she will. All the love you offer her during her wakings moments will make up for a handful of tough nights and days of sleep training. Kids are resilient like that. 

Does anyone else have any helpful advice or experiences to share with Annie? What helped you decide on a sleep training method? How have things improved since you sleep trained? What would you have done differently in your situation? (I know sleep training is a touchy subject, so nice comments only please!)

Better TV Means Better Kids {Infographic}

While I was shopping today with my 2 and 5 year old (always a pleasant experience!), my 5 year old was sneaking around the corners of the store and hidng everywhere. Turns out he was pretending to be an explorer like Dora the Explorer! It made me smile amidst the spilled drink on the ground in front of me and the crying 2 year old who had lost said drink.

And it reminded me of this great infographic from educationnews.org. Isn't it so much nicer to learn something in a graphic than from boring text?! As I've mentioned many times over, too much tv (especially close to bedtime) or the wrong kind of tv (nightmares anyone?) isn't great for sleep. And it isn't so great for other areas of development either...

When Postpartum Depression Took Over

This post has been on my mind for a few years. I've been hesitant to write about it before now. Maybe my heart needed to heal, maybe I was scared to open up about such a personal subject. I don't know. But in the end, I know some of you are suffering out there and some of you know someone who's suffering, and I hope this post helps you through it and let's you know you are not alone!

Me and Joshua

It began about 3 days after my oldest son, Joshua, was born.

I'd been anxious before, but this was something else. I felt like my heart was constantly racing, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't stop thinking and worrying and, well, I felt crazy anxious.

Then a few days later the depression set in and things got worse. A lot worse. Nothing says it better or how it really was like a journal entry...

Journal Entry 2/7/08 (6 weeks post partum)
The hard thing about Joshua is that nothing is black and white. I can't stand it. I just don't know what to do. I am going crazy! I have been feeling progressively more depressed and anxious. I started on antidepressants on Tuesday. I hope they start working soon because I am getting worse and don't know how much more I can handle.
It is horrible to say this, but so far I really do not enjoy being a mom. It has nothing to do with not liking Joshua, it is just the job--it is so stressful, hard, frustrating, tiring, overwhelming and different from what I've ever done. I have to admit I feel abandoned by God. I know I'm not but it feels like "how could he do this to me, I'm suppose to be a mom, why can't I enjoy it or handle it?" 

Joshua is 6 weeks old today. I made it this far at least. It is easier but I'm still having a really hard time. I had an anxiety attack today. It was horrible. I really hope I feel better soon or I don't know what I'll do.

Journal Entry 2/19/08 (7 weeks postpartum)
It's amazing how I have already forgotten so much of the pain and agony of the last several weeks. It was horrible, all I wanted to do was put him down. I wanted nothing to do with him. I'm still having problems with bonding with him, but they have imp;roved. My depression isn't as bad but definately still there. I don't feel like stabbing myself right now which is good. (yes, I wrote that--at the time I'm pretty sure I wished I was dead, but I didn't actually feel a desire to hurt myself. It was more like "if a care would randomly hit me as I was crossing the street, I wouldn't mind"). It is amazing how bad depression and anxiety can get. It isn't even imaginable how horrible it can feel. You have to have it to know. I REALLY hope things get better because i dont feel like i can keep doing this for too much longer. i want to quit breastfeeding but i also don't. i would feel so guilty since it is healthier. I just dont understand everything im feeling. I hate it.  

I felt so prepared to spend all my time taking care of a baby but now all I want is to not take care of him. I feel resentment toward him I think. I don't like being a mom and I feel so scarred that this feeling won't change.

Journal Entry 2/27/08 (2 months postpartum)
I have felt happy a few time and I wish I could feel like that all the time. 

Journal Entry 3/8/08 (2 months postpartum)
I'm doing better, though still not where I'd like to be. I still feel extremely depressed and anxious at times. I'm finally able to find enjoyment ins more things which is so great! 

I am still breast-feeding amazingly! It is still getting easier and a couple times I have actually enjoyed it. 

Future Journal Entries - Pretty much full of my obsessive thoughts over my son Joshua, so I think I was feeling much better by then! Antidepressants made a world of difference for me and I was able to wean off them within several months without any issues.

As you can see, I got pretty dang depressed. Honestly, even these journal entries can't give justice to  how I felt. It was a nightmarish time, and my guilt over feeling how I did about my son made it that much more of a nightmare. I didn't want to feel this way, I tried not to feel this way, but I did.

Not surprisingly, I was scared for quite a while to have another child. When I was at my worst, I even vowed never to have another child in fear that I'd have to go through this again. Obviously, I eventually had another child, but that doesn't mean I wasn't freaked out about getting PPD again. I tried to do everything possible to make the birth of my next child easier to decrease my chance of PPD--even to the extend that I had 50 pre-made frozen meals in my freezer beforehand!

Postpartum depression sucks. It's not fair. Did I mention it really, really sucks?

 It's not something you should ever feel guilty or embarassed about. And it's not something you should suffer with on your own. See your doctor, talk to a friend, leave a comment in this community here. If I could, PDD would never hit another hard working, worn out mom (and sometimes dad) again, but until then, take each day, even minute, one step at a time, and know that you are not alone.

Sleep Books by Sleep Training Method

So you're dirt tired, you can hardly see straight and you haven't had time to brush your teeth for...who knows how long. You're afraid if the neighbor sees you she's going to think zombies have invaded your house, BUT you decide to go ahead and read that huge sleep book sitting on your shelf because you CANNOT go on living like this. But guess what. That book you just spent every last free second reading turns out to be exactly what you weren't looking for! Not only was it a waste of money, but it was a huge waste of time (especially because many authors take hundreds of pages to get to their point!). I mean, you can hardly find time to make it to the bathroom, you don't have several extra hours to read a book that turns out to be about CIO when you aren't interested in CIO--or vice versa. 

Time and energy is not something you have much of right now. So I hope the below list will be a super duper quick version of the top sleep training methods for you. I'll link to the book review if I've done one, and I'll eventually get to adding all the reviews. My guess is that you can get most of these from the library, but I've also listed where you can buy them too (I found them all on amazon, which is where I generally find the best prices).

Keep in mind that although I'm listing these books under a sleep training approach, this is just the method suggested IF your child continues to have sleep issues after following their other recommendations (which often include suggestion like the ones on my setting the stage for good sleep post). 

Some additional posts that may be helpful while choosing a sleep training method:

• Sleep Training Defined (by me!) 
• Choosing An Approach
• It's time to take the GUILT out of sleep training
• Sleep Training - A baby's humorous point of view - we all need to laugh sometimes, right?
• Ferber vs Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
• Sleep Training Index

Gentle and No-Cry

• Baby Sleep Book (Sears). Sears is an advocate of attachment parenting and co-sleeping. They believe in gentle approaches to sleep training and they encourage more parent involvement with sleep ("night parenting"), particularly with babies. You can buy the Baby Sleep Book here. 
• Helping Baby Sleep (Gethin, Macgregor). This book focuses on helping your child sleep while following the attachment parenting approach. It is very much against CIO alternatives. You can buy it here.
• No Cry Sleep Solution (Pantley). Pantley also believes in attachment parenting and co-sleeping, although she understands that all parents may not want to co-sleep for various reasons. She offers lots of very gentle solutions to help your child sleep better, even if you are co-sleeping. You can read my review of The No Cry Sleep Solution here and buy it here.

Intermediate or Middle Ground (may be crying, but you are in baby's presence)

• Baby Whisperer (Hogg). The Baby Whisperer is all about teaching your child to sleep well from the get go. She starts with a routine from early on and gives suggestions to help with sleep (along with lots of problem solving) for varying ages. You can read my review of The Baby Whisperer here, see lots of her methods here, and buy the book here.
• Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight (West). West believes that sleep training often isn't easy and that crying can't always be prevent, but that you can coach your child through the process with your presence and encouragement  She offers sleep tips for different ages and suggests starting her "sleep shuffle" around 6 months of age. You can buy her book here.
• Touchpoints (Brazelton). Touchpoints offers different sleep tips for each age and developmental stage of baby's life (as well as many other tips). He teaches you about sleep patterns and the effect your response has on them. He offers tips on sleep training that focus around not rushing in, comforting your child while he tries to self-soothe, and CIO with checks. You can buy his book here.

Cry It Out

• CIO with checks and comforting until baby is calm
• Baby Sleep Solution aka 12 hours by 12 weeks (Giordano). Generally with this method, you will be checking in on baby every 3-5 minutes and staying with her until she is calm. You will continue your checks at this interval until she falls asleep or stops crying. Her sleep training methods start around 6-8 weeks (although you can start anytime up to 18 months). You can read my review of The Baby Sleep Solution here and buy it here.
• CIO with checks
• Babywise (Ezzo). Babywise isn't extremely specific about how to do sleep training. You can read my post about sleep training according to babywise for more. The emphasis of this book is more on feeds and routines. You can read my review of Babywise here and buy it here.
• Complete Sleep Guide for Contented Babies and Toddlers (Gina Ford). Gina ford suggests different amounts of crying depending on your baby's age. She is a hard core scheduler which is a little too much for some people, but a relief for some people that just want to be told exactly what to do. She tells you exactly what to do for whatever sleep issue you are having. You can read my review of The Complete Sleep Guide here and buy it here.
• Sleepeasy Solution (Waldburger, Spivak). This method can be started around 4 months of age and is what the authors call a "least cry" method. They believe their method helps teach a baby to sleep the quickest possible with the least amount of crying. Results are often dramatic in just a few days. You can buy it here.
• Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight (West). Generally, West encourages you to be in your child's presence during sleep training (see above). But once your child is falling asleep well or if your child is more stimulated by your presence, she suggests possibly doing checks with your child.
• Sleeping Through The Night (Mindell). Mindell has a method somewhat smilar to Ferber, although she doesn't give you a specific interval to do the checks at. Her methods can be started after a few months of age. She also has many suggestions for newborns to encourage good sleep patterns. She is an easy read and gives you a good understanding of how sleep works. You can read my review of Sleeping Through the Night here and buy it here.
• Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems (Ferber). Ferber suggests letting your child cry at increasingly long intervals, which he specifies. He offers lots of information on sleep basics as well as ways to encourage your child to sleep outside of letting him CIO. You can read my review of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems here and buy the book here.
• Touchpoints (Brazelton). Touchpoints offers different sleep tips for each age and developmental stage of baby's life (as well as many other tips). He teaches you about sleep patterns and the effect your response has on them. He offers tips on sleep training that focus around not rushing in, comforting your child while he tries to self-soothe, and CIO with checks. You can buy his book here.
• Extinction CIO (no checks)
• Babywise (Ezzo). Babywise isn't extremely specific about how to do sleep training. You can read my post about sleep training according to babywise for more. The emphasis of this book is more on feeds and routines. You can read my review of Babywise here and buy it here.
• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (Weissbluth). If you want a good understanding of sleep, you'll find it in this book. You'll also get lots of suggestions on how to help your child sleep better without crying. If needed, extinction cio is suggested. You can read my review on Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child here and buy it here.
• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins (Weissbluth). Same as above, but for twins. It is different enough from the original that if you have twins and have read his original book, you may want to pick this up (Don't worry, it's much shorter than the original!). You can buy it here.

Other books I've reviewed that include a little bit about sleep but it isn't the main topic:

• Wonder Weeks (Vanderijt and Plooij) - No Cry. Sleep is full of lots of ups and downs--and many of them you can predict, almost to the day! You can read my review of The Wonder Weeks here and buy it here.
• Bedtiming (Lewis and Granic) - Not for any particular approach. Find out when the best time is to sleep train your child and why. You can read my review of Bedtiming here and buy it here.
• Happiest Baby on the Block (Karp) - No Cry. For the fussy infant, The Happiest Baby on the Block can be a lifesaver (for her and her parents!). You can read my review here and buy it here.

Luke and Jude 1 month

You know how sometimes time goes so slowly, but it goes by quickly as well? This is one of those times. It's hard to believe a month has passed.

Routine
They are both still eating around 3 hours during day. They wake up for their feed about half the time (almost always on the 3 hour mark--it's amazing!) and Sharon wakes them up for a feed the other half of the time. Sometimes they'll wake up earlier than 3 hours, but so far it seems to be a sleep issue, not a hunger issues, and she is able to get them to go back to sleep with a little help. If they were hungry before 3 hours, she would feed them. She is following the PDF method and EWS routine and encourages full feeds. She mainly follows the baby whisperer's methods right now, although she isn't as worried about sleep props as the Hogg is. She does what she needs to do to ensure her babies get enough sleep and that she doesn't get too overwhelmed.

At night, they usually go 3 hours at first then she wakes them for a feed. After that, they usually sleep 5 hours (followed by a feed) then 4 hours then it is time to get up for the day. I know, pretty awesome for a month old, especially twins. About every other night one of the twins will have sleep difficulty at night. Sharon generally holds them or puts them in a swing (if it's Jude, Luke hates the swing right now) and they fall right back asleep. If they didn't fall back asleep easily, she'd consider that they were hungry and feed them, and the other twin, sooner than usual.

Eating
Eating is going well. Sharon got mastitis which made life pretty horrible for a few days. She took antibiotics which cleared it up (yes, I asked her if it was ok to mention this--we've been discussing these posts and what to write, she's just too busy to write them herself). She's also had issues with blocked ducts. If you've had those, you know they are pretty painful. A heating pad has turned out to be the most helpful thing for her with these.

The twins have both gained weight well, even a little above average (which is pretty normal for the nephews/nieces in my family whether breast or bottle fed). My sister's comment after we weighed them last was "who says you can't breastfeed a baby on a schedule and have them thrive--and I'm feeding two!" Exactly.

Sometimes they will get fussy during their bedtime and late evening feed. Usually offering a pacifier for a minute will calm them down then they'll eat.

Luke always takes longer to eat even though he is the lighter of the two twins. Shows you how different all babies are.

Sleeping
Jude is a better sleeper than Luke  He settles more easily and stays asleep longer without help. But his digestive tract is also a bit more sensitive so you can't have it all :)  Luke gets overstimulated more easily and swaddling seems to especially help him settle down before sleep--the tighter the better. Sharon uses a halo swaddler right now. It's been keeping them swaddled well most of the time and it's pretty quick to put on--important when you've got two you're trying to swaddle and get to sleep. She's also a fan of the miracle blanket. They sleep in the newborn rock and play sleeper much of the time still. This bed is pretty common for single babies, but I've found it is really common (and a bit of a life saver) for multiples.

Sharon isn't doing cluster feeding in the evening. Trying to fit that in with two babies while taking care of other children and dinner is too difficult. Neither baby has seemed to be hungry sooner (except for a few rare occasions) so she hasn't worried about it. She is sort of doing the DF around 10:30, although it is more like a normal feed than a sleepy feed.


Waketime Length
They're usually up as long as it takes Sharon to feed them, change their diapers and put them back to sleep. So like an hour. If one of them spits up all over his clothes (likely Jude!) or poops twice it takes longer. She'd like to consider waketimes more, but she can only move so quickly with two babies so she does the best she can.

Evening Fussies
Yes, they've got them, the evening fussies. Luke has especially gotten fussy the last couple weeks, although the fussiness level seems to vary from day to day. Sharon and her husband/friend/family member usually spend their evenings holding the babies from their bedtime (7:30 ish feed) to late evening (10:30 ish) feed. Sometimes they'll surprise her and sleep well during this time, but she doesn't count on it. If she's holding them, they will sleep OK. They often fall asleep for a few minutes, start to get fussy, are calmed back to sleep and repeat.

After the late evening (10:30) ish feed, they seem to go to sleep half the time and half the time one of them will be fussy and need some help for some time before going to sleep for his longest stretch of sleep at night.

How is mom doing?
Sharon's emotions have been doing pretty well. She's had a couple days where she started to feel pretty overwhelmed but overall it's been ok. She's tired, but she doesn't feel so tired that she's unable to function half decently. She tries to take a short nap or two a day when she can which helps tremendously. She's still pretty hesitant to leave the house by herself with all her kids. It's hard to manage a toddler and baby twins at once at home, but away from home is another story. Life right now is one cycle after another. Feed baby, change diaper, put to sleep, repeat. She's trying to enjoy her babies while they are little, but at the same time, she's a little excited for when this phase is over with :)

On a side note, she's found that the twins are much easier and less stressful for her than her first baby was. Not only was she a first time mom then (which is really stressful for many of us--myself included), but her oldest was a very difficult baby and always fought sleep. I'm mentioning this as a reminder that every baby is different and some are much harder to take care of than others, even if you are doing an amazing job (which, you likely are). Yes, your neighbor's child may sleep like an angel and always be smiling, but that doesn't mean your neighbor is doing anything better than you are with your sleep resisting, fussy newborn. Babies, parents, life situations etc are different, and that can make all the difference in the world.

You can check out Luke and Jude on Week 1 here.

Sleeping Through The Night - Jodi Mindell, Ph.D.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read Sleeping Through the Night. I expected it to be really technical, full of lots of medial jargon and, well, badly written.  This isn't to say that all psychologist, like Mindell, are boring and dry and all those who run a sleep clinic are overly technical-but it seems to be a bit of a trend I've noticed :)

This book was well organized, simple to understand, provided enough information about sleep basics without overwhelming you with too much detail, and, most importantly, it provided a lot of answers to the most common questions people have. There isn't much point to a sleep book if you read it and try the methods but find you have a hundred unanswerable questions. If you're looking for a book full of humor, you won't find it here, but Mindell's writing does flow well, is sympathetic and is easy to read.

Additionally she includes information about behavior management (which helps you understand why doing certain things to encourage sleep may or may not work), common child and adult sleep disorders and coping methods for those helping baby learn to sleep (who doesn't need coping techniques when they're listening to a baby cry?!).

What I really appreciate about her book is that she truly doesn't seem to be judgmental about parents choosing different methods to teach their children to sleep. Yes, she has her preferences, but she really seems open minded. She isn't one of those people that says "I'm OK if you do CIO....assuming you're mean enough to listen to your child cry, on the verge of death, in the dark for hours." OK, so no author has straight out said it this way, but some of them have pretty much conveyed this ;)

Mindell does feel strongly that sleep is important and she may make you feel guilty if you're not on the same page about this. She also isn't one to beat around the bush. She'll tell you like it is, even if it may make some people upset. For example, some people seem to be offended by her saying that if you let a child cry then cave in, you have not only just made the crying worse in the future, but you have just had your child cry for nothing. Not easy to hear, but really, it's the truth.

So what's her basic sleep training method?

Just like most sleep experts (and all sleep books worth reading), she recommends methods for setting your child up for good sleep. She has a few suggestions for the first 6 weeks, more suggestions from 6 weeks -3 months (which she believes is the best time to establish good sleep habits), and after this time, she offers her Basic Bedtime and Naptime Methods as solutions to sleep issues, if needed. These basically involve having your child on a good routine with some good sleep habits in place (like a bedtime routine and a good sleep environment) and then putting your child to bed awake rather than asleep. You then check on your child at intervals until they fall asleep.  I don't really agree with her when she calls her method gentle, but if you are comparing it to extinction CIO where you never check on the child, I suppose it is. When done consistently, her Basic Bedtime/Naptime Methods are almost always effective. There is even research to back this up.


Have any of you tried her methods? What did you think? Did you have success?

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Daylight Savings - Time to Jump Ahead!

I really, really don't like daylight savings. I think it is still that we still have it, and I've seriously considered moving someone else, like Arizona, where they don't have this darn skipping back and forth each year. It was a little annoying when I was younger, but now that I've got kids, it's SUPER pesky!

Anyway, I haven't picked up and moved to Arizona yet, so I've got to deal with the "spring forward" (and, gulp, the "fall back" in 8ish months!) and most likely, you have to deal with it too so let's go ahead and have a chat about it. Maybe we'll both dislike it less afterwards :)

When is Day Light Savings?
This year, 2013, if you're in Canada or the US, you'll have to move your clock forward 1 hour on March 10. For my friends in Europe, you get to make the switch on March 31.

What are some of my options?
There are a few different things you can do with daylight savings  depending on your child's current sleep schedule, your family's schedule etc.

1. Keep things the same. I've done this before with my kids. They were waking up around 7 and I thought 8 sounded pretty blissful and dreamy (don't we all!). We generally don't have any sort of events like public school that control our schedule so we can do this. And my kids sleep great doing a 7-7 or 8-8 routine. Well, it starts off around 8-8, but it usually moves at least 30 minutes earlier (how do they know!!) in a few weeks time. If you've got an early riser, then keeping things the same might help you out, although unless your child has problem with an early sleep phase, you'll probably have to adjust bedtime too so it isn't too late (and likely adding to the issue).
2. Move everything ahead 1 hour. This is what most people do. They've got school or work etc and they need their children's schedules to stay the same. For some kids, they also need it to stay the same because waking too late in the morning will end up causing sleep issues (especially if the morning wake up moves earlier and earlier and parents don't adjust bedtime). I don't know how they know, but light change or no light change, kids seem to know if they are waking or going to sleep early/late. I've traveled through time zones dozens of times with my kids and somehow, they know, EACH AND EVERY TIME.
3. Do something in the middle. This one is a bit self explanatory. If it works for you and your child(ren), then it's something to consider (especially because some kids will slowly wake up earlier and earlier as they get closer to the next time change).

How do I Spring Forward for Daylight Savings?

Lucky for you, this time of year is the easy one to work with. For most kids, it's really easy to move their whole schedule an hour later compared to moving it an hour earlier (early morning wake up, anyone?)

With either the full or partial spring forward, you can take it slowly or quickly. 

With the quick change, you'll change all the clocks in your house the night before and get your child up at their regular time by the clock (so if they used to get up at 7 am, you get them up at 7 am, even though this is actually what used to be 6 am). Don't forget to turn your alarm clock on so you don't all sleep in! Most kids will adjust in 2-7 days and start to wake at the earlier time by themselves and be ready for bed at the new time. Some kids, and you'll figure this out as the years go by, will do better with slow change.

For those children who are really sensitive or have a hard time with any kind of routine change, you may want to take things more slowly. Wake your child up 5-15 minutes earlier every 1-3 days (you're probably ok making it earlier each day, but there are some really sensitive kids out there!). With most kids, you'll have great success adjusting their entire routine (meals and sleep) to the new morning wakeup time of the day. So if you move from 7:30 to 7:15, you'll do every activity of the day 15 minutes earlier, including bedtime. There are a few kids out there who have very strong internal clocks and get really stuck on their bedtime hour and have a hard time falling asleep if it is moved earlier. For these kids a few days usually makes all the difference.

I personally prefer making the change quickly. Not only do my kids do fine with a quick change, but if I can do things quicker and smoothly, I'll likely do that. Who wants to adjust things for a week(I've even heard of some people adjusting things over a whole month!) if you can do it successfully in 1 day. I definitely don't!

Remember, our children have strong internal clocks and much of this is controlled by their daily routine and by sunlight. So it's especially important during this transition that you keep to a normal daily routine (routine feeding and sleep times, in the least) and that you keep sleep times dark and have plenty of light and sun during waketimes, especially first thing in the morning.