Reading time

Gillian went through a Very Unfortunate Phase where, for two months, she was waking up between 5 and 5:30 am for the day. Besides the obvious way that this puts a cramp in one's style (and level of exhaustion, and mood), she was falling asleep during morning errands and not sleeping particularly well or long at nap time (and on my work days, this was consistently making me late). We kept making excuses for why this was happening (going to big bed, moving rooms, the holidays, teeth...), but I finally consulted with my sleep bible. It is true that a weird pattern emerged where she would wake up and request watching her two episodes of Little Einsteins-every day, earlier and earlier. We would stagger into the living room, put the episode on and stagger back to bed. I can see why she loves the show-we love the show-it's incredibly creative, and very encouraging re: developing a musical ear...we were hooked when the episode came on that began in Cremona, Italy (birthplace of Antonio Stradivari and Niccolo Amati) where a "Mama Cello" had five baby cellos. One fell into a river and got lost. The episode is about the mission of helping the baby cello find his Mama. Anyway, back on track-after consulting my sleep bible (which I credit solely with Gillian's mostly excellent sleep habits since we did Cry It Out at 6 months old), I realized she was waking earlier and earlier to watch Little Einsteins. The book warned about that with using the TV to extend your own sleep or to watch your child while you get ready for work (which I use to be appalled by, but can kind of see the logic now). The Book recommended a couple of options: 1) keep putting the child back in her bed over and over and over until she understands that it's not time to get up yet; 2) ignore her when she comes to your room ready to play; or 3) get an alarm clock with a big display, write the time that is an appropriate wake time on a piece of paper next to the clock and tell the child they can leave their room when it is XX o'clock (they said this is best used on a child that is 3 or older because of their ability to understand what you are telling them).

We opted for a hybrid of options 2 and 3. Option 1 sounded like too much work. Off Gillian and I went to Target to find her clock. She picked it out. I wrote, in large text "7:00" and taped it to the drawer under the clock,which was strategically positioned for easy viewing from her bed. For the following two weeks we pulled her into bed when she got up super early and told her it was still nighttime and it wasn't time to wake up yet (and I quote: "it's not time to wake up yet-it's not 7:00!"). When she protested, we told her she could stay and sleep or snuggly quietly in our bed or she would have to go back to her own room. We have a spare pillow in our bed for her and it usually happened that she chose to stay in our bed. After she got situated, she usually tried to start a conversation. After that, we ignored her and she usually ended up falling back to sleep. For the past two weeks, she doesn't even bother us until her clock says "7:00" or later. She comes in and says, "It's time to wake up! It's SEVEN O'CLOCK!"