February 18, 2008

Elliot's been waking up at 5:30 again. For the day. For the last 3-4 weeks. Even a 6 weeks ago, he was "sleeping in" until 6:45-7ish.

He wakes up, does a really loud, persistent and very fake cry until we go in. Then he waves and says "hiiiiiiiiiiii!!" Usually, try to soothe him in his crib but that never works - he tries to climb me. So we sit in the rocker, in the dark, and he sometimes doses off again. But whenever I try to put him back in his crib, he's instantly on his feet and the whole thing starts up again. Usually I then nurse him and try rocking him some more, which doesn't work, so I then pass him off to Jay who changes him and they comes downstairs while I crawl back into bed to try to sleep for 30 minutes before getting up for work.

This morning, this all started at 4:45. I rocked him and he dosed off. Put him down again around 5:15. Instant screaming. I went to the bathroom to let him CIO a bit while I got a cloth wipe warm. Jay got up. I asked him to warm a bottle of milk while I nursed him (turns out he didn't have a poopy diaper, so we put off changing him.) Elliot downed the bottle (this is new - we never do a bottle in the mornings) and I rocked him some more. He was sleepy but awake, and I put him down anyway around 5:45. Made it back to bed and he started yelling. Jay got up and took a turn. He was back in bed by 6. Elliot was yelling again by 6:05, and so we decided that Jay would change him into a daytime diaper and I'd take him downstairs for breakfast.

While we were discussing this and Elliot was yelling, our boarder got up to start his day, so Jay had to wait for the bathroom to be free so he could get warm water for the change, etc. Elliot was surprisingly quiet, despite door openings and closings and then noises in the kitchen while M got his breakfast ready. 6:30, Elliot is still quiet so we all go back to sleep.

It's 8 and Elliot is still asleep. I don't know what freak of nature or stroke of luck made it happen, but I'm very glad it did. I guess he took a second to rest his eyes and passed out. He wouldn't sleep until 8:30 last night, so I know he is exhausted.

It doesn't seem to matter what time he goes to bed at night. We've tried everything between 7-8:30 and he still wakes up at 5:30. I think our option right now is to check on him once at 5:30 and then leave and hope he sorts himself out. I suppose I could continue giving him a bottle, in case he's hungry, which is what I think part of the problem is. Even though he eats a ton during the day and has a good supper.

When he's up this early, he needs 2 naps during the day, but then when he has those 2 naps, he doesn't want to sleep at night. Without that second nap, he's a cranky, horrible creature that no one wants to be around.