Tia has been a great sleeper for the longest time. Even after we stopped swaddling her, once she fell asleep she would stay asleep until I woke her up around 6:00am. But ever since she had ear tubes put in a week or so ago, she has been getting up at 4:00am every morning. She has always lost her pacifier a few times during the night and I'd stumble my way through the house and put it back in, but the past week she just wants to be up at 4:00am. When I got see if she lost her pacifier, it is still in her mouth and she is wide eyed and awake. If I don't pick her up, she rolls over and peaks over the crib bumper and then tries to pull herself up out of the crib to get to me. So I've been bringing her into bed with us hoping she'll fall back asleep...but she has her little hungry whimper so I've been forced to make her a bottle. I hate making her a bottle that early because I don't want her to get into a habit of it. Before she goes to bed, she eats around 7:00pm to 7:30pm-ish which is what we've done for the longest time. I'm just not quite sure what to do. So I'm asking for suggestions and whether anyone has had this same experience and what actions you were able to take. We would also like some advice on putting Tia to bed. She doesn't want to go to bed at all. After her bath, she is just awake and wants to play. If we put her in her crib, she'll try everything to get out and whine that she wants us to pick her up. She'll also sit up in her swing if we put her in there to try to make her more drowsy. I've been forced to rock her for about 20 minutes which she fights at first and then finally dozes off. I definitely don't want to get in that habit either mainly because if we travel and stay with someone else and they do not have a rocking chair, then she won't go down. She has a cute little pink, fuzzy lamb head with a small blanket attached as her sleep prop. She does hold onto it when it is bed time, but she still does not want to go to bed. Help anyone?!?
Ah, sleep habits are mysterious! What time does she go to sleep? When does she nap? It may just be that she learned something new and wants to keep trying it over and over is having a hard time relaxing. I remember that happening when Alexander learned to pull up and we just had to get throught that phase. I'm pretty sure that I just kept giving him his pacifier and laying him back down. I agree with you that you don't want to get them in the habit of getting fed in the middle of the night again! Maybe she's just becoming more of a night owl and needs her last bottle, bed time moved back. My boys both seem to go to bed a bit later, and if I try before they are tired it is really stressful for everyone. One thing we do is shut off the tv, turn down the lights, etc. as the evening stretches on so they don't think they are going to miss out on anything exciting by going to bed. At one point we had to turn off all the lights and make Alexander think we were ALL going to sleep for the night. My sleep drama is that Gabriel wants to get up at 5:00 almost every day...and always has. About 25% of the time I can get him to "sleep in" until 6:00 or 6:30 after a bottle, but I think he is just an early riser. Boo.
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