Whew! *knock on wood*, it appears to have been a short-lived phenomenon. I definitely heard Daniel around 4:45-5:00 this morning, and decided I was not getting up unless he sounded like he was in distress. Next thing I remember is him chatting/squawking at the much more reasonable hour of 6:30. I’m pretty sure he quieted down at 5:00 and went back to sleep, but early-morning cognitive function for me is a little fuzzy. Either way, we started the day at 6:30 this morning, which makes me feel 100 times better. Hooray!

Because New England likes to kick you in the ass just as soon as you’re starting to get hopeful, it’s about 38 degrees with a predicted “wintry mix” all day today. Awesome. Some day it will be spring, so they tell me.

On the plus side, we start our sign language class tomorrow! Hooray for an outing for all four of us. I hope we all enjoy it. My kids will likely be the youngest in the class (stated age range is 8-24 months, my kids will be 8 months next week), but I’m hoping it skews toward the younger end of the range and it’s not a bunch of almost-2-year-olds. We shall see…

Can someone tell me what the deal is with 4:45 in my house?! Yep, two mornings in a row.

Yesterday morning was a nightmare. When last I wrote, Daniel had gone down for a nap at the ridiculous hour of 7AM. I put Rebecca down at 7:45. Not two minutes later, Daniel was up. I was practically in tears. An hour later he finally went back down for maybe another 45 minutes. The 45-minute trick is usually Rebecca’s, but at least she took a decent hour-and-a-half nap. When Daniel was (more than) ready for his afternoon nap at noon (also on the early side), I was worried. It could have gone either way… either a day of crappy cat-naps, or he’d crash. Thankfully, he crashed and slept for 2 1/2 hours, and the afternoon was significantly better than the morning.

But now, here we are again!! As yesterday’s strategy was not particularly successful, I figured I’d try something different. At 4:45, Daniel was talking and Rebecca was crying. I got Rebecca back to sleep, Daniel clearly was not going down. Talking degraded into crying. I made sure he wasn’t stuck in a corner, and decided to leave him be. Of course, he just kept screaming. After a while (and him becoming louder and louder), I thought I’d try to bring a bottle upstairs, feed him in the dark, and sit in the rocking chair with him. I know, it’s like the anti-Ferber, but it seemed worth a try. Well, he was calmer, but he didn’t got to sleep. Still, I figured I’d stay quiet in the dark until 6. So, here we are again. We’ll see what happens today.

But honestly, WTF is up with the 4:45 wake-up? What changed? Bedtime is the same as it always was (about 7pm). It’s not like it’s light outside that early, and they have room-darkening shades, anyways. No idea. I just hope it’s a phase that will pass quickly…

Sadly, you can’t talk reason to a seven-month-old.

Daniel was awake at 4:45 this morning, and fully refused to even consider going back to sleep. Fine, great. 5:15, we’re downstairs. Good times. At 5:45 I went up to get Rebecca, because I was not going to have them start the day more than an hour off from one another. While I know plenty of people say never to wake a sleeping baby… when there’s two, you do what you must to preserve the schedule, or the entire day is shot to hell.

So, I get Rebecca up. Fine. By 6:30AM, Daniel is (surprise!) exhausted and melting down. 6:30!! Come on, now! You’re killing me. By 7 I could not do anything more for him, and put him down for a nap. At seven o’clock in the fricking morning. When our usual morning nap starts between 8:30 and 9:00. Why do I feel like he’s the one who got up at 4:45, but I’m the one being punished? I wanted so badly to explain to him that he would have been much, much happier if he had just gone back to sleep at 4:45, but he wasn’t having it.

And, of course, Rebecca is wide awake. Greeaaat. I’m going to try to put her down between 7:45 and 8:00, and hope that I’m not totally screwed. I hate these days.