Most of the time, Cole has two versions of waking up. A) He's hungry. Very distinct cry/whine. Must have milk immediately. No patience for cutting up fruit or waiting for toast to pop. B) Longer, less intense complaint. More like a wolf howl crossed with zombie-movie grunts. He's bored, awake, and wants out of his crib. This is the one you want. All smiles, he rolls around and then stands for you to pick him up. Sometimes he gets silly and hides under his blanket playfully.
But between the teething and the growing and the sleeping through the night 9 out of 10 times now, a new problem has developed. We have somewhere to go, we have something to do, he needs to be awake to keep his nap schedule or bedtime smooth.
A couple times, we've gone with the sneak-in-the-room tactic of quietly coming up to the crib and calling his name. But usually what happens then is you have to add a pat on the back/leg/butt to it. Which evolves into a shake if he is hard asleep.
Our new favorite tactic is the subtle "just make noise" where we flush the toilet, run the vacuum, put away the dishes, open his door and squeak the hardwood floors instead of tiptoe by. This usually ends with a confused, still sleepy Cole though.
So how do you handle a kid who is on hour 3 of what should have been a 2 hour nap? Or it's 6pm and his schedule says he should be back in bed by 9pm at the latest?
I suspect he will end up the kind of teenager where we have to bang pots and pans and pull the blankets off him--just judging by his personality now.
But between the teething and the growing and the sleeping through the night 9 out of 10 times now, a new problem has developed. We have somewhere to go, we have something to do, he needs to be awake to keep his nap schedule or bedtime smooth.
A couple times, we've gone with the sneak-in-the-room tactic of quietly coming up to the crib and calling his name. But usually what happens then is you have to add a pat on the back/leg/butt to it. Which evolves into a shake if he is hard asleep.
Our new favorite tactic is the subtle "just make noise" where we flush the toilet, run the vacuum, put away the dishes, open his door and squeak the hardwood floors instead of tiptoe by. This usually ends with a confused, still sleepy Cole though.
So how do you handle a kid who is on hour 3 of what should have been a 2 hour nap? Or it's 6pm and his schedule says he should be back in bed by 9pm at the latest?
I suspect he will end up the kind of teenager where we have to bang pots and pans and pull the blankets off him--just judging by his personality now.