We had just gotten him to a point where he slept til 6 at least most mornings, with a couple of days a week where he was woken early by… *ahem* well poo. He woke himself up doing a poo about 5am. I would go in, change him and pop him back in his cot. And he would go back to sleep if it was before 5.30, but not if it was after.
Then I made mistake number one. I let him come into bed with us in the early mornings. He would ask so sweetly by saying (while he was being changed) "qwiiiiii-yet mama, qwiiii-yet". So I would bring him into our bed for the 20 minutes or so before the Wookie's alarm goes off.
Now once this has worked beautifully. I played some music softly, he lay still and quiet and listened, and fell asleep again and everyone had a lovely sleep in (must have been a weekend). For a while at the start, it went fine, because I would play music quietly on my phone, tuck it under the pillow, and he would lay quietly listening to the music, until the alarm when off. When he would have a dance party on the Wookie's head.
But, then it all went pear-shaped. My new iPhone cover (which is necessary due to my ability to take it swimming) makes it hard to tuck the phone under the pillow and quietly play music. Atti lost his slight ability to lay quiet and still in bed, and became a holy terror in the bedroom. And all of a sudden it wasn't a couple of times a week, it was every morning at 5. And if I put him back in his cot he would shriek and wail about it.
I should note here that we live in a small block of flats and that we are friends with the other occupants. So we know that the neighbour who's room is above Atti's is woken by him if he is loud. And it seemed a bit rough to wake him before 6 with a shrieking small.
The neighbour went away recently for a few weeks and I was determined to get this sorted out. Shriek away son, I don't mind. However, the best laid plans… etc etc - we had a new problem. Atti was wetting through his night nappies. I was considering attaching a menstruation pad on the inside front as extra absorbency, when a friend told me she solved the problem with a different brand of nappy. And gave me a couple to try. It worked a treat and I immediately switched.
But he was set in his pattern of waking between 5 - 5.30. And the neighbour is back home. Urrrgh.
But I have bit the bullet this week, and been putting him back to bed if it is before 6. He really needs more sleep, and so do we. And aside from one morning which involved an hour of shrieking (impressive because he has never done it that long before) it seems to be working. I don't want to jinx myself, but hopefully his problem is dealt with for a while.
Because it is never really over - and it is winter here…. which I hope doesn't mean lots of flu, but he does tend to cough a lot when he gets sick, and that sends sleeping straight to hell.
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