Sleep Rules

My sweet little Owen has been an 'early bird' since the day he was born.

For the first 18 months or so of his life he woke at 5am. There was nothing we could do to change that. Put him to bed later and he woke up earlier... Put him to bed earlier and he woke up earlier. His internal clock woke him at 5am and that was that.

I blame this turn of events on his father, who is also an early bird. Fortunately, they can keep each other company in the mornings and I can usually sleep in for a little while (if you call 6:30am sleeping in).

He finally outgrew the 5am waking and shifted slightly to 6-6:30 and I became accustomed to starting my day early. It is amazing what one can accomplish by 9am when you have been up since 6am.

Last week he started waking at 5am again. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have a baby who usually wakes around 4:30 to feed, meaning that I am generally awake from 4:30 on.

At first I wasn't sure why this was happening. Could it be the noise of Alex around that time that was waking him? Was his room getting too cold in the morning (which usually happens every fall until we start turning on the space heater in his room)? Should he be going to bed later or earlier?

I turned to my sleep bible (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Weissbluth) to see what the guru had to say. He suggested a possibly later bedtime, but not too late as to make him overtired. So I adjusted it by 15 minutes. It helped a little, but not much.

Then one morning Owen complained to Nick that he didn't have enough time to play with him in the morning before he left for work. Hmmmmm.... could it be that Owen was waking early to spend more time with Nick?

To test the theory, Nick promised to wake Owen up at 6:15am the next day and that he could not leave his room until Daddy came to get him. Worked like a charm.

So we have posted three sleep rules over his bed:

1) You CANNOT get out of bed before the clock says 6am (and have put a digital clock in his room)

2) Daddy PROMISES to wake you up at 6:15am so you have lots of time to play with him in the morning

3) If you wake during the night you must first try to fall asleep on your own before waking one of us up

Two nights in and all is quiet until 6:15am when Nick wakes Owen up. Success!!