I’m a morning person. In the first half of the day I’m at my most productive, my most energetic. I like waking up, knowing a fresh day stretches out before me. Most mornings, all I need is a cup of coffee and a couple of minutes to shake the cobwebs from my head, and I’m ready to go. On the fairly rare occassions when I sleep in, it’s never any later than 8:00 am.
But I’ve met my match. There’s early, in a birds-are-singing and sun-is-shining kind of way, and then there is “oh no, you can’t be serious – it’s two hours until sunrise!” kind of early. Could someone please explain that to Simon? It’s a good think he’s so damn adorable, else I would have locked him in a crate in the basement by now.
I can’t remember the last time my alarm, set for 5:45, actually woke me up. This morning, I was profoundly asleep at a little past five when Simon’s whimpering “Mummy? Mummy?” wafted down the hall. I woke up with that sickening feeling of being yanked to the surface of an ocean from some incredible depth beyond the reach of daylight, where only eyeless fish live in thermal vents.
I’ve given up on trying to coax Simon back to sleep most mornings. IfWhen he wakes up between 4 and 6 am, I try sticking his soother back in his mouth and patting him back to sleep, which never works. If it’s really early, I’ll try rocking him a bit and turning his CD lullaby back on, which never works. I’ve begged, pleaded, cajoled and ignored, none of which ever work. Mostly, I just pick him up and carry him into our bed, where he flops about like a landed trout while I try to convince myself I don’t need more than six hours of sleep a night. He crawls around on our bed, sticking his fingers in our ears and pulling my hair and kneeling on my nipples (at least I can say that the rest of the day is guaranteed to be an improvement from having someone kneeling on my nipple) until either one of us gives up and brings him downstairs or, more likely, Tristan wanders in and crawls on to the bed, too.
This morning, even though as soon as Simon saw me he began to dance in his crib and chatter cheerfully “All done, Mummy. Up! Up! All done!” while holding out his soother to me like a prize, I stubbornly refused to give up hope that this might be the morning Simon curled up in my still-warm bed to fall blissfully back to sleep. I picked him up, berating myself for my spinelessness – and felt something warm and wet soaking into my t-shirt. He’d peed through his diaper, two layers of jammies, a blanket and his crib sheet. I stripped him and his bed, piled everything in a corner, and dressed him for the day, all without turning on a light or opening my left eye. I think he’s wearing brown and khaki cords with a red sweatshirt over a lime green t-shirt. He’ll never remember when he grows up, I’m sure.
I was still debating hauling him into bed and using our combined body weight to pin him under the duvet when Tristan wandered in, rubbing his eyes and whimpering. Tristan, who has had virtually no accidents in the two months since potty week, had peed through his pull-up, jammies and sheets. I reassured him that everyone has accidents, dried and dressed him and stripped his bed – just in time to hear my alarm go off.
Every morning for weeks I’ve written a blog post in my head, pleading for help from the blogosphere on how to get Simon to sleep until – let alone past – 6 am. I’ve thought about it as I rocked him (unsuccessfully), ignored his cries (unsuccessfully), tried to get him to sleep in my bed (unsuccessfully) and given up and just gotten up with him (unhappily). For all the time I’ve spent thinking about this post, it’s an incoherent mess, isn’t it?
Any thoughts, bloggy friends? We’ve tried keeping him up later, or putting him down earlier. I’ve tinkered with naps. No matter what I do, they both rise before sparrow’s first fart. It’s been almost a year since we relented to CIO sleep training to get Simon to sleep at night, and I have absolutely no problems putting him down for naps or at bedtime – in fact, it’s one of the best times of our day. But how, for the love of god HOW do I get him to sleep just a little bit later?
If you need me, I’ll be the one standing in the kitchen, trying to get the coffeemaker to drip directly into my mouth.
Categories: Simon SleepDeprivation
I don’t have any specific advice except to say that he may just grow out of it. My son was quite an early riser, too, until about age 2. Then he gradually became able to sleep until 6:30, even 7:00. Now I can’t imagine getting up at 5:30 every day…
Good luck getting through your day after such an early and soggy start!
I have no clue Dani….I’m soo glad my guys love to sleep in I can get till 8 on a Saturday. Long as the house is quiet. Hate me now don’t you? 😉
Just remember these days when he comes home at 3 a.m. only to sleep till 12:00.
LOL
Not helping am I
Going away quietly before Dani throws a cuppa at the screen.
Oh, my sympathies, Dani! We’re on the opposite schedule here — up late, wake late — but the basic lack of sleep problem is still the same. At 1:00AM, when Baby Blue was still chanting “AGAIN” to hear her favorite book, I thought I was going to shoot myself in the head…
I wish I had suggestions to give.
another no-great-suggestion post!
we too live with late sleepers, late wakers which makes for really rushed stressful mornings trying to get everyone fed and out the door
guess your guys have inherited your morning genes, something about individual biorhythms
would having some books/small toys in the crib help, something for him to look at first thing in the morning? although sounds like what he really wants is see his mummy
amazed at how much you get accomplished before I even get myself out of bed
good luck
Ooh, you got me laughing already this morning, Dani. Kneeling on your nipples; yep, I hope the rest of your day went up from there. Many times, we wake up with fingers in our noses. John loves to dredge up there.
Sorry, no advice on that front; I have an almost-10 year old that wakes before the break of day.
They will probably outgrow it. My first was an early riser, alwasy before 6 am adn he outgrew it,even though he now gets up at 6am, he can play by himself for a bit.
We always put toys in his bed after he was asleep, that way when he woke up he usually played a bit before calling out…every minute counts.
Though be careful which toys, soft books, cardboard books, stuff he can destry or choke on:)
M-A
PS Come and visit me one day..not the blog…Germany:)
Don’t try to get him to go back to sleep, instead tell him it’s not morning yet, but it will be when the music stops and you will come to get him then.
Turn on the music. Blow him kisses. Leave the room.
The first few times he will wail as though you had stabbed him through the heart. After that, he’ll put up with it.
The trick is to pick the routine and stick with it.
Been there. Now we’ve got a Bobby Bunny alarm clock in his room whose ears go up when it is time to get up. We have a baby gate on our bedroom door. I remove the bulbs in his room and the hallway and there is a blackout blind in his room. If the alarm clock ears are down he knows it is not getting up time, I ignore him, it is too dark to play and unless he is wet he has learnt that he might as well go back to bed. It took several weeks but now he rarely wakes early and if he does he often goes back to bed.
damn… that sounds just so sad, such a broken up night, but i can remember how it used to be here too in the past and yep, they grew out of it…
– the “music on and when it’s over, its morning” thing helped for a while…
– an evening bath and a little massage with some special oils (don’t know what you’d call them in english, ask at any new age/oriental/herbal medicine place) helped with one of the girls…
– the “one night on, one night off” routine in which both partners took turns helped keep sanity for a while
hope this helps… keep well…
You’ve dressed two kids and stripped two beds by 5:45?? Unimagineable…I can get up to pee at that time and go back to bed assured of at least another hour of sleep. Heck, today I had to wake them both at 8 AM in order to get to preschool by 9. (we barely made it). They were asleep AT 7 last night too…blush.
I wish I had something to say that would solve your sleep issues and you not hating me.
Love you???
Dani, we have tried it all. But, sadly you are in good company. We are usually awake between 5 and 5:30 although lately we have had a few 6am treats. I have tried it all and was able for a long time to convince him to cuddle for a while by saying it was still night time, but he doesn’t go for that any more. Now, he wants to go directly downstairs as I am stumbling out of bed.
Anna – having coffee early too!
Ugh! I’m right there with you–my 2.5 year old is up at about 5:00 almost every day–and on the odd day that he chooses to sleep until after 6:00–the baby is sure to wake between 5 and 5:30. Sorry, Mama. I feel your pain. I dread looking in the mirror in the morning–I am so bloody tired.