Another Sleeping Update

I'm sorry if this talk about Andrew's sleep habits is boring to the small group of you out there that read my blog!  I just want to record this stuff so I can look back later and see how it all unfolded, and I'm just lousy about keeping a journal so I'm recording this on my blog.

I got Andrew a night light, and it seems to have helped.  He still wakes up during the night since I got it, but only once or twice instead of multiple times.  The bedtime routine has improved--now once he gets into bed I can close the door almost all the way and just reassure him that I'm still there and stand/sit right outside his door for 3-5 minutes or so, then ever-so-carefully and silently close the door once he settles down and seems to be going to sleep.

Unfortunately, he still isn't napping very well.  He takes about a 30 minute nap every other day.  Today he slept 30 minutes, then was able to go back to sleep for another 30 minutes because Paul went in and lied down with him.  The other inconvenient thing lately has also been that he's waking up earlier every morning.  First it was 6:45, then 6:24, 6:12, 6:06, 5:30, and today it was 5:18.  We can sometimes get him to go back to bed, but it's usually just for 10-30 minutes and then he's up again.  I've been trying to move his bed time earlier to compensate and in the hopes of getting him better-rested.  One key thing that "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" says is that the more tired a child is, the harder it is for them to fall asleep and stay asleep.  It's counterintuitive, but when a child stops napping enough and/or wakes up too early in the morning, you should try to get them to bed earlier at night.  It's been hard to get him to bed early because I just haven't been very organized about dinner time this week (what I'm going to make, when I start making it, etc).  Tonight we got him to bed just before 7, so hopefully that helps.  I'm going to aim for 6:30 tomorrow night.

Just another note, for future reference:  I think the chance to daylight saving times contributed to all this.

In the end, I know that this phase will pass soon and we'll settle into a comfortable sleep pattern again eventually.