Morning Blues

I don't have too many complaints about Riley. Since we passed that early infant stage she has been a pretty easy child. She has oodles of energy and sometimes we wish she'd want to just sit and cuddle more, but overall she's pretty great.


All that being said...she does not sleep enough for me. I mean, overall she's a good sleeper. She has slept through the night since very early on and has always slept in her own room.


But there are two issues.


She gets up too early. It wasn't always like this, but I swear she turned two and this has been a battle since then. Sometime in December she decided she wanted to get up earlier and earlier...some days even as early as 5:30. We all had the flu and then were traveling so we kind of let it go. Then when we returned we started using the power of suggestion to get her to sleep later. Ok, not so much suggestion as an order :) We explained to her repeatedly that we would not be coming in her room before 6:30am. We told her if she woke up early she would need to play with her music aquarium and hold her bear. Believe it or not I think this worked. This and having the will power to let her cry for a day or two in the morning. She went back to sleeping until about 6:45.

Then a few weeks ago after an inital false start...we moved her to a bed. It went much better than I expected...it sometimes helps to expect the worst. We definitely face more resistance to going to bed...I am envious of all those people who's kids just stay in bed b/c our daughter is not one of them. Some nights she will, but most nights she gets out once or twice to let us know she doesn't want to go to sleep. We have gated her in for her safety (and our sanity :). But once she goes to sleep that's it. We do not have any 2am wake-up calls (which I was fully expecting b/c I've heard that's common). I appreciate that. And that is where the good news ends.

The latest she has ever slept in this bed is 6:45am...and that is only b/c she did not go to bed until 9:15 last night! Yesterday she awoke at 5:47am. Does she not understand that Saturday mornings are for sleeping in and relaxing?! It wouldn't be so bad, getting up that early...if she wanted to cuddle on the couch and watch Sesame Street, but she wakes up ready to go. Ready to play and eat and go to the park.

On top of this she does not nap long enough. She will only nap for 1 hour and 15 minutes. ON a good day 90 minutes. I talk to friends who's kids nap 2 or 3 hours, some even 4 hours. Wow, I imagine taking a nap AND getting something done while she is down. What a dream! And yesterday it occurred to me that she's only heading towards less nap time, not more.

I pictured this entry having more of a point, a storyline with a beginning and an end and some humor mixed in, but the truth is...I'm just too tired (did I mention my engergizer bunny woke up at 6:45 and kept us going pretty much all day!)