WTF?
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…
Tags: early morning
March 27th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I always love the post titles of WTF?! I would be thinking the same thing if one of my kids got up at 4:45.
Oh wait, that has happened to us! Yep, completely random early wakeups for no good reason. Our most recent one was two months ago, but at least I could put on Elmo and take a nap on the couch.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:24 am
yup, sounds familiar. and like laura said, it will continue until the kids are probably 12. i say that because at that point they probably won’t want to get out of bed until noon and we’ll all be pissy that they are sleeping their days away!
i always try to reason these things out – i know, poor me! but i’m thinking your kiddos are getting ready to crawl, no?
last time we were in the land of early wake up hell, we decided to just let them duke it out as soon as they woke up. because we knew if we went in there, it was over and there was no going back to sleep for anyone. it actually worked really well. most of the time, it was just one guy and he ended up going back to sleep within 5 minutes.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
1. Tooth about to pop
2. Developmental milestone
3. They’re just screwing with you