Oh Sleep, Where Are You??

For my loyal readers, most of you know that I have been obsessed with Monkey's sleep pretty much since she was born.  I believe a well-rested baby is a happy baby, so it was my goal to make sure she was well rested.  We hit a few bumps along the way, but for the most part she is a fantastic sleeper.  She still is, except for the fact that the past two months she has been waking at 5:30 AM ready to start her day!  I however am not ready to start my day at 5:30.  She at least wakes up happy and is content to play in her crib, but more days than not she does not fall back asleep before it's time to get her at 7:00.  And when she does, she falls asleep right before 7:00 and it messes up the rest of her day!  We have been trying some things that haven't been working and I just felt like someone had set an alarm in her body to go off every morning.

Well, we took her to the pediatrician a couple of days ago for something else and mentioned the sleep issue we were having.  He said that some kids are just early risers and there is nothing you can do about it, but he did let us borrow one of his books.  Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Richard Ferber.  Of all the books, I haven't read this one and I'm so glad that I did!

We are going to try his methods and see if they work for us.  After all he is the director of a Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders.  Can't hurt!  According to his data - I am expecting too much out of Monkey when it comes to sleep.  He says on average that babies her age sleep a total of 12-13 hours - that INCLUDES daytime sleep.  We have been expecting her to sleep at total of around 15 hours and I'm just not sure she is capable of that.  After all, she is happy and content with the sleep she is getting - it's momma that is not happy and content with waking at 5:30!

In one of the chapters our scenario was described exactly (love it when that happens).  A 9 month old who went to bed at 7:00 but woke at 5:00 ready to start the day.  So his theory is that she only needs a consolidated 10 hours at night.  Our almost 9 month old appears to need a consolidated 10 1/2 hours at night.  She is then taking about 2 one hour naps during the day.  (Oh how I wish that afternoon nap were longer, but most days it isn't).  He said that just by moving bedtime later, it doesn't help reset her clock.  So his suggestion was to move their daughter's entire schedule up an hour by 15 minute increments a day.  Basically like we would be getting ready for a time change.  So we are going to try that.  (Of course it worked for these people and their daughter started sleeping from 8:30 - 6:30).

Today is day one.  But instead of 15 minute increments, we are doing 10 minute increments to make it a little more gradual.  So we are hoping to get to two naps at 10:00 and 2:00 with a bedtime of around 8:00.  Of course the week after we finish moving it is VBS and then two weeks after that we go on vacation.  So I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that it works even though we don't have 2 solid weeks back to back to let it set in.

His book is very logical and very practical.  I like that.  He doesn't make blanket statements that ALL children should be sleeping XYZ during the day.  Clearly over the past 2 months she has shown us that she only needs 10 1/2 hours at night right now - so we are going to try to work with her and hope she will start sleeping until at least 6:30!  Then of course when she goes to drop her morning nap it will change again I'm sure, but at least IF this works we will be a little more ready.

I have loved her bedtime of 7:00 because it gives Nate and I time at night, but I do not however love waking up at 5:30.  So hopefully this is a change that will work well for all of us.  Here's hoping!  I'll keep you updated!