Even the larks are saying "you've gotta be kidding me".

Would you believe that in the end, I forgot to take the cursed cake to worK?  Well, actually, I remembered when I was halfway there in the car- at which Botany may have learned a new word or two.

The last post on tantruming creates a nice segue into what is seemingly my mostest favouritest topic- sleep.

May's comment raises an interesting question- is it not the case that Botany is tired, having woken up at 4.45 am and might this not be a contributing factor in the tantrum incidents?  Yes and no. On that particular day, we were up very early, but in classic Botany style, she wanted to go back to bed about 7.30 for some boob and sleepies, which we did. She slept, I did not. So when I say she was not especially tired, I am basing this on her just having had an hour of sleep to compensate for the early morning waking. I concur she may have still been a little tired. But it seems Botany is completely capable of pitching a fit no matter how much sleep she may or may not have had.  Often times she kicks off not long after she has actually woken up from a refreshing nap.

Still- 4.45 am- the root of all evil. You may recall that before we went on holiday, I was considering implementing Operation Blue Light. I figured there was no point until all the travel was completed, since body clocks were going to be wonky here anyway. Then when we got back, there was a hellish period where she wouldn't sleep at all, followed by a blissful spell where she regularly slept until almost 6.30am. It was during that lovely time that I began to hope that maybe we'd finally turned a corner. Then she started waking up again at all kinds of silly, early times- BUT- and here's the part that makes both Knox and I want to weep with frustration- she only seems to do it at the weekend or on the days when we could actually enjoy sleeping in until 6.30am.

Whoah. I just wrote "enjoy sleeping in until 6.30am". Somewhere, I think I hear my mother laughing.

It's especially hard for Knox because once he's been woken up in the morning, he has a really hard time going back to sleep. I'm usually able to drift off for some extra snoozing if I bring Botany into bed to nurse for anywhere from a half hour to an hour (or however long she desires) before she starts leaping up and down on my sternum. Knox invariably ends up lying there awake, waiting to get kicked in the ribs, before eventually dragging himself bleary eyed out of bed. During this morning's 4.45 am wake up call, he actually departed in a grump for the sofa, where he threw himself down to watch television in a sleep deprived stupor. All the more unfortunate given that for a change, Botany went straight back to sleep right after I brought her into bed with me and slept like a log until 8am.  

What drives me particularly crackers is that when she does want to bound out of bed at 5am or whenever for the day, she is invariably tired a couple of hours later, and ready for a morning nap. On the days when she manages to sleep until 6am or later, she's OK to last the morning without additional sleep. Which tells me she probably really does need that extra hour of sleep. 

Interestingly, at the same time, the whole bedtime routine has changed. It used to be that we would do bath, jammies, brush teeth, read stories in the rocker chair and then she would nurse to almost sleep before I put her down in the cot around 7.30. But a couple of weeks ago, she simply would not fall asleep (even though she was clearly pretty tired). I decided that come half past seven, she was going into the cot no matter what. So I started just putting her down awake. And what I discovered is that she would go quietly, and even though awake when I left her, would fall asleep on her own.

Since then, we've progressed to her actually asking to go into the cot around 7.30 (usually after 10 minutes of nursing). I put her down, give her a kiss, shut the curtains and make sure she has all her favourite toys, her sippy cup of water, and a book. She says "night night mummy, see tomorrow morning" and waves. Sometimes we blow kisses as I leave the room. And then she will read or chat quietly to herself or the toys in the cot for up to half an hour before falling asleep. Tonight she requested asked to go to bed without any nursing at all. 

I'm frankly still trying to pick my jaw up off the floor about it all, but it's really, really great. Unfortunately, the slightly later bedtime doesn't guarantee a later wake up time, particularly at the weekend for reasons we are unable to ascertain. Can I also point out that I've attempted the Weissbluth formula of earlier bedtime repeatedly and trust me, it really does not work for Botany.) I do wish that she could apply some of the same methods of entertaining herself quietly in the cot for awhile before she gets up- but what I have learned is that clearly, she has that capacity and maybe just needs us to reinforce that message.

To do that, I may need to get started on Operation Blue Light. Amusingly, though, we've lost the instruction booklet for the timer gadget supplied by Knox. I was envisaging some little simple mechanism plugged in at the socket, but this thing is complicated enough that I reckon that secretly it is capable of doing our taxes, monitoring our heart rates and mumuring subliminal messages. Sleeeep, Botany, sleeeeep.      

 

      

 

 

Comments

[Cibele]

Sleeeep, Botany, sleeeeep... I feel you pain. Lyla sleeps until later (8:30 am) but she will not go to sleep until 10 pm...

[May]

Aha. Well, good luck! When you make some progress, I'd love to hear what worked. We had Buddy (15.5 months) all sorted out and sleeping from 7 PM-6 AM but then he went from 2 naps/day to 1 nap and got 2 new teeth and I heard him talking to himself last night at 3:42AM, so what do I know?!?

My money's on one, maybe two days of indignant and incredulous screeching from 4:45 AM to lights on, and then after that you'll all be sleeping through 'til the sun comes up. Bliss.

And yes, my mother is laughing at me, too. She lives 1800 miles away, but I hear her quite clearly.

[ksmaybe]

I loved you Operation Blue Light plan, but haven't yet tried it out here either. I have a 4:40-5 am riser too, and yes, I've tried earlier and later bedtimes...nada. He also goes down awake easily. It's like he and Botany are long lost twins :) He's ok chilling in the morning for 30-45 minutes most mornings although he complains, just not full out crying. Sigh. I've tried waiting him out, nursing and putting him back down...all to no benefit. Blue light shopping to commence I think.

[Carla Hinkle]

At the risk of providing assvice, have you tried googling for the instruction manual?

Re: the sleeping ... is there any possibility that the difference between work days (when she goes to nursery) vs not work days (when she gets that lovely extra nap) is messing with her tiny head? Not that the solution (getting her up early even when you don't have to) is a very nice solution, but just a thought ...

[sarah]

My son is a bit younger than Botany but we went through something similar when he was a little older than a year. He'd often wake up early and then want a morning nap even though on days where he would "sleep in" (ha ha, til like 6:30) he never needed a morning nap. What we eventually did was to not allow the morning nap, no matter what time he woke up. It was hell for about 4 or 5 days and then that was it, no more early morning wakings. It was hard to keep him up and active those days so I planned as many activities as possible to keep him engaged and less sleepy.

What is her nap schedule like when she is in daycare? Maybe you could enlist their help in setting a consistent naptime that doesn't include a morning nap. Whatever route you choose, good luck!

[Betty M]

I've got nothing but sympathy and the hope that it passes.

[Hairy Farmer Family]

5.30am this morning. 4.45am yesterday.

Would type more, but he is napping and SO MUST I!