DST to the Rescue?

Usually I am not a big fan of "springing forward." Well actually I'm usually not a fan of messing with the clocks at all, but losing an hour was always worse than gaining an extra one in the fall. Last year though I discovered that the spring one CAN be the "good" one when you have an early bird toddler. It was last spring when DST kicked in that Nadia finally started waking up at a more reasonable time, and that has remained true ever since then. Although Nadia has had a few rough nights over the last few weeks (ex. on Tuesday morning she asked to go to the bathroom at 4:30am and this morning she was crying because her pillow fell off her bed at 4:00am), normally she sleeps from about 8pm to about 7am. Ian goes to sleep sometime between 7:30-8:00pm. I usually put him down at 7:30, but sometimes (like 2 nights ago) he cries for 30 minutes before falling asleep, and other times (like last night) he falls asleep within 5 minutes of being put in his crib.

He usually starts fussing and crying sometime between 4:15-5:00am. Last night he cried a bit at 3:00am but thankfully went back to sleep until 5:45. Normally once he starts fussing, he never goes back to sleep. He usually doesn't work himself up to crying until about 5:45. I usually get him sometime between 5:45-6:00. This means he's getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night, which is not enough. After I get him I make him a sippy cup and he falls asleep in my arms in Paul's office (while I'm reading email, Facebook, blogs, etc.) and sleeps until about 7:00am at which point I get Nadia and we three head downstairs. If he woke up at 6:00, I could handle that as it's been working out nicely for me to have some computer time with Ian while Nadia and Paul are sleeping. The problem is that I rarely fall back asleep once I've been awakened anytime after 4:00am. Nadia has the same problem as me I might add. She will play in her bed with her stuffed animals for up to 3 hours without saying a peep, but she won't fall back asleep if she has to pee at 4am. This makes for a VERY fussy child since she is used to getting 11 hours not 8 hours at night. Since I usually go to bed between 9-10pm, this means I'm getting only about 6 hours of sleep on average, which is much less than I prefer. The amazing thing is that I have never rescued Ian from his crib earlier than 5:45am over the past 4 weeks, and yet he still hasn't figured it out. Sleep training doesn't usually take that long!!! So right now I'm hoping against hope that DST will help Ian sleep until 6am. That would mean 10 hours at night, which still is less than what all the books say a 15 month old should get, but at this point I'll be thrilled if he sleeps 10 hours at night. Some days he is sleeping about one more hour in my arms so I guess he is getting 10 total on those days (which wasn't today in part because our ISP was down at 6am).

The nap situation isn't going well either. Monday he slept for 40 minutes in his crib. That was the longest in weeks (maybe months?). Typically he sleeps 20-30 minutes in his crib and then finishes the nap in my arms (sleeping for at least one more hour). Yesterday he screamed for 60 minutes in his crib (never fell asleep). Usually 30 minutes is the maximum that he cries. I only put him down for one nap a day, but sometimes he gets another short nap in the car earlier in the day. Yesterday he didn't sleep in the car on the way home from gymnastics so it surprised me that he refused to nap in his crib At All.

For some unknown reason I've been taking a lot of videos of Nadia lately. Paul should be happy as it's one of those things he reminds me rather frequently that I should be doing more often, but for some reason I usually don't get around to actually doing it. Here's one of her saying her first 4 Bible verses plus the first 5 names of the books of the OT and NT. Since I've posted videos before of everything but the first 5 books of the OT, here's a shorter video just of that. I love how she says Deuteronomy. We're still working on consistently remembering to include Leviticus. That is the one most likely to be skipped. I think she'll have it nailed by Sunday. Here's one more video. This is of her "reading" the book Blue Hat, Green Hat. I figure at the very least her Grandmas will enjoy the videos.