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My son has been waking up at 5 a.m. and crying lately.
WTH?
He's always slept until at least 6:30-7.
Why the change, do you think?
Yesterday my DH got up with him. Today I did. This can't go on.

He stayed up past his bedtime a few days recently. Do you think that would make him wake up earlier?

It could. Ronald will wake up early if he goes to bed any time past 8 sharp. He seems to sleep less if he takes a short nap or goes to bed late. It's wierd.

Also, Ronald did this same thing a couple of days last week, and now he has an ear infection. He never pulled on his ear, so I had no idea why he was waking up.It was hurting and waking him up. Poor guy! I tried to let the infection run it's course, but he got a fever from it yesterday, so I took him to the doc and got antibiotics. I hate giving them to him. He has had so many with all of his infections.

Yeah, I think that things like that can throw a kid off-schedule for days, Kristi.
My LO does that every time we go on a big car trip (especially when we visit his older cousins, because they stay up later than he does) or do something that puts off his bedtime.

He also gets messed-up (meaning that he wakes up EXTREMELY early in the morning and/or wakes in the middle of the night) when he's getting sick.

And sometimes his schedule gets thrown out of whack when he's about to learn (or has just learned) something new (when he learned to walk, run, jump, eat with utensils, etc). My sister has noticed this with her kids, too, in fact. And I remember recently reading something about it in a parenting magazine.
What I'm saying is -don't worry Kristi. It's just a phase, and it could mean that his brain is working overtime.

Kristi,

This also happens when we travel or have a schedule change. When Ben has done this, I just try to keep things as quiet and sleep-like as possible until his normal wake up time. For example, I'll go into his room and change him, then put him in his crib with some books or soft music and just turn on the night light.I usually will sit in there with him and talk quietly "it's still night night time," etc.

I didn't want him thinking 4:30 or 5 am was normal wake up time! I've heard friends say they leave their lo's in the crib, even if they are awake or fussy, until their normal wake up time. This never worked for us.

Good luck!!

Did it go better last night Kristi?

Very strange things happening in this house lately when it comes to sleep.

He woke up at 7 today. Which is great.
But he fought us tooth and nail going to bed last night. Which was out of character for him. He was screaming and crying and coughing...you'd think we were killing him. I rocked him and comforted him. It took like 45 minutes. Usually I just put him in his crib and shut the door and he goes to sleep within 5 minutes with little fuss.

WTH?
I guess that's a whole other thread.
And on top of all that weirdness, he's been sleeping 3-4 hours a day for naps. Which I'm not complaining about. But it's just all very different than what he usually does.

Tomorrow night we have the Tim McGraw show and a babysitter here. I really pray he doesn't freak out at bedtime for the babysitter!

Thanks for asking! And sorry for the short novel. As you can see, I'm a little confused over here...LOL

I have hated it when Ronald has done things that were out of character (like waking early-napping late). It always leaves me confused and unsure about what to do and why it's happening. Jack is probably just going through some sort of change (teething, growth spurt, etc...) and that is causing his change in sleeping habits. I sure hope he does better for the babysitter tomorrow so you can enjoy yourself! Have a blast at your concert!!! Dance a little extra for us LOL!!!

This is really not expert advice, but speaking for me and my sister (5 kids between us both) they will do this odd sleep pattern thing on occassion and you really won't get consistent full night sleeping, all the time, clock work till they are 3! Like I said - no expert, just a poll on 5 kids, all of which are now 3 and older.

OK, now we're swinging in the other direction. Today he got up at 7:30.
BIG SIGH.
These kids. Will we ever figure them out?

Nope. Never.
And I've got an 18 yo, so I can say that with authority!

OK, now we're swinging back.
Today it was 5:30 a.m.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

It must be the changed nap time. He is getting up so early now.
Must get more coffee.....