Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Early riser

I’m getting all too acquainted with the “wee sma’s” of the morning. Unlike most normal babies (who the books say should be sleeping 10+ hours at night) our son thinks that 8 is quite enough. So when he goes down at 7:30pm, he thinks that it’s time to rise and shine at 3:30am or so.

Gabe and I are rather at a loss as to what to do about this. Jonathan just isn’t tired anymore. He’s not crying – he’s “talking” – loudly. He only starts crying if we ignore him, which I suppose is reasonable.

So one of us has been getting up with him so that the other can sleep. While I was sick Gabe got up; usually I try to since he has to go to work and school. This is obviously not a great situation.

Does anyone have any great ideas? It seems like we shouldn’t be encouraging this (and getting up with him is encouraging it?) but we also can’t force him to sleep when he’s just not sleepy…

Yawn…

Once up he’s completely happy. He’s sitting playing with his toys while I write this.

4 comments:

Amber said...

Well, personally I'd say you have three choices, but I doubt you'll like any of them :-)
1) Put him to bed later and hope he sleeps a little later.
2) Shorten or do away with a daytime nap.
3) Wait and hope the pattern changes soon (as it certainly will, but it may not happen for a couple months and/or until he reaches another physical milestone)

Sorry, not much help here! We ended up doing all three at various points, although I think I had the most success with 2 and 3. Although #3 isn't so much of a solution as a change in perspective...

I hope you're having a great visit with your houseguests :-)

Elena Johnston said...

I let the wuggies come into bed with me when Andy leaves for work. They crawl all over me, cuddle, and play with their toys while I doze. Those groggy snuggle mornings are very precious times!

Elena Johnston said...

Oh wait. I guess that doesn't help if he's waking up before Gabe. Cuddle time on the couch, maybe?

Linds said...

You could make him run laps in the late afternoon to tire him out. Oh wait... :)