Who's Sleeping at 8114 Willowdale Court?

NO ONE come 5am!!! What is that all about?! Josh and I both LOVE sleep. Where did this kid come from? Seriously though. Since our Christmas travels sleep has been a challenge. After visiting the doctor and learning nothing was wrong with Jackson besides a massive amount of teething, we managed to get back on to some sort of track. I felt comfortable letting him cry in the mornings and he usually went back to sleep for at least a half hour or hour. If he was waking up, bright eyed and ready to play, that would be one problem. But, you can tell he is still sleepy, but can't stay/get back to sleep. I felt like we were making progress, and then Jackson got sick. The night he was sick he slept from 5pm-5:30am. I wasn't frustrated with him waking up them since he didn't feel well. But, since then, he's been up between 5 and 5:30 every morning! We aren't quite sure what to do to fix this.

I've been letting him cry it out to go back to sleep like the doctor suggested, but he just cries for a whole hour! Almost an hour and a half this morning! I would love for 6:30 or 7 to be our regular wake-up time. But, I'll settle for 6 at this point. The way I understand it is that the point of crying it out is to let your child settle back to sleep on his/her own. If you keep going in or go pick them up and get them out of bed, they will learn that if they cry long enough, you will come. I've been really strong on that front. BUT, I think he would cry forever these mornings! How can I get him up without sending the message that I'm rewarding his crying? ARGH!

Last night Josh and I decided to try a later bedtime. The problem here is that if that's the solution, I think it will take a few nights to show improvement. I want to know we are making some progress! We managed to keep Jackson up until almost 8 last night instead of the regular 7. He was still up at 5:15! That's the thing. He usually is visibly ready for bed at 7 (or before!). It's not like we have this arbitrary time, he's playing happily, and we just send him to bed. He also needs his two naps still. Same thing. I'm not just laying him down twice a day. He is definitely winding down and getting a little cranky at those times. In support of that information, an article in this month's Parents' magazine addresses the problems of an early waker. They say it can be due to a too-late bedtime, nap deprivation, or too long between the last nap and bedtime. That leads me to think that we should be laying Jackson down earlier, not later. I don't know which way to try first! We also have been really good about our sleep routine for a long, long time.

I know that in a few weeks I'll look back at this post and know it was just a short-lived phase. But, that is so hard to really believe when you are in the middle of it!!!