For the past few months, Sly's sleep schedule has looked approximately like this:
In his crib at 9 pm.
Wakes up between 5 and 6 am.
Mommy brings him into the bed to nurse him, and they both fall asleep there.
Between 8 and 9 am, Sly decides he's done sleeping, and wakes Mommy up.
His method of waking me up in the morning used to be simply by crying. More recently, he's gotten creative, and likes to wake me by smacking my face or pulling my hair. Not the most enjoyable way to be roused, but certainly better than what woke me this morning: the sound of a huge bang and then Sly screaming. Somehow, he'd climbed away from my side without me noticing, crawled across the bed, and went off the edge, smacking his head on the bookshelf. He has no awareness of the risk of falling yet, and has had many close calls where he's tried to plunge off the edge of something. But I never even considered the possibility of him crawling away from me in the morning before I would wake up! I guess I'm still not used to having a mobile baby.
Obviously, something needs to change now. But I don't know what. After his initial waking early in the mornings, he sleeps pretty lightly. I don't know if he'd "let me" put him back in his crib, even after nursing. Do I need to start waking up for good at 6am?!
Whatever the answer is, I have a feeling it's going to involve me getting less sleep than I need....Now I understand why co-sleeping families often keep their mattresses directly on the floor!
Matthew used to want to wake up at 4am. We did what Ferber recommended and taught him to sleep until we wanted him to wake up. Since Sly goes to bed at 9, the max you'll get for him to sleep to reasonably is between 8 and 9. Therefore, if he wakes up in his crib before then, go in, pat him gently and tell him that it is night time still and he still needs to sleep. Don't turn on any lights or open any shades, etc. He may cry for a little and that's where the Ferber method kicks back in. After a few tiring mornings, he'll get the idea and learn that it's time to sleep longer. It truly worked wonders with Matthew and now he happily sleeps from 7:30-6:45 with a 2.5 hour nap at 12:30 each day. Hope that helps! :)
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