sleep? what's that?

A couple weeks ago, Grady was spending every night whining/crying for an hour or two, before finally falling asleep at night. This was not like him. He has always gone to sleep great for us. until now... now, he would be perfectly fine until the second the door clicked shut - then the whining/crying began. Sometimes he would be hysterical. We initially thought it was just a phase and tried different things to get him to sleep. No luck. Nothing seemed to help. So, usually after 10 trips back up to his room (rotating between mom/dad each time), he'd eventually fall asleep...just in time for mom and dad to go to sleep, too. This was getting quite exhausting.

One night it clicked... Is Grady afraid of the dark? I guess he has hit that age where it is possible. The next night when he started crying I went up to his room to comfort him, and I asked if he was afraid of the dark. He said yes. (I'm not sure if he really knew what I was asking, but I went with it anyway). I turned on the lamp on top of his bookshelf and asked if he wanted to sleep with the light on. He said yes. I left the lamp on, walked out, and never heard another peep. The next night I went to turn on the lamp again (thinking that was key), but he said no... still, he went to sleep without a peep, again... and has every night since.

I guess I will never understand what his issue was, but whatever it was - he figured it out that night, with the light of the lamp.

Now, sleeping in in the morning is another issue. I guess I should say... it's non-existent. Grady has always been a morning person, and probably always will. But, some days are just a little harder on us than others, and today was one of those days.

5:01 a.m. and Grady is screaming from his room. We have all been sick this week, so lack of sleep is hard on all of us. But, I am trying to blame the early morning awakening on that, but truth-be-told, this is nothing new, so probably just a sad excuse.

watching a baby genius DVD in mom's bed this morning. he got this DVD from auntie tressia for his 1st birthday and it has been his all-time favorite since.

always a smily/happy morning person

So, I have tried absolutely everything I can think of to get Grady to sleep later. I have tried my own ideas, researched ideas, read articles, taken advise from other mothers... put him to bed later, no naps, have him play quietly in his room, put a clock in his room and tell him not to get up until it shows 7 (if you know Grady, that one is funny), etc...nothing seems to help. All I get is an overly tired, cranky kid.

However, about a week or so ago I decided to try the advice of taking a nap later in the day (normally he naps around 10-10:30 since he gets up so early). We've done this before, but I thought I'd give it another shot. So, we started having lunch before nap time and then napping around noon or so. The next few mornings he was sleeping until 6-6:30! I was ecstatic! This is quite the improvement from 5-5:30. So, we kept this up all week...and Grady slept well all week. Then daylight savings time came around. I got a little excited, thinking... maybe he will sleep until (dare I say it) 7!!! How could he really know, right? WRONG. Turns out Grady is actually on 'fall-back', rather than 'spring-forward' time. Now, since Sunday, he is getting up between 5 and 5:15a.m.

That's it... I give up.

As Jon likes to say "It is what it is".