Will It Work?

Since Peter and I are both early risers by nature, it isn't too surprising that Soren has picked up this trait. But latley, he's just taken it too far. I mean, I had (sort of) grown used to him calling me at 5 a.m. asking if he could get up. I'd tell him no, and that he needed to go back to sleep. He'd lay there quietly for 20 minutes and then call me again. This pattern would go on until 6 a.m. when I'd finally relent and let him get up. Which means that while I didn't get up at 5 a.m., I never really got to go back to sleep.

But lately, he's been waking at 4 a.m. Four o'clock in the morning. Ugg. Usually he'll go back to sleep for an hour but then he'll start calling me again at five.

We've gone through this pattern before. Putting him to bed later seems like the most likely solution, but the last time we tried it it just didn't seem to help.

So, tonight we are trying a new plan. I've put a digital clock in his room. We've taped up the last two digits so that only the hour shows. I've told him that if it shows a six, or a seven (I can dream) then he can get up. Otherwise, he needs to go back to sleep.

He's pretty excited about it. In fact I told him about it this morning, but then didn't think of it when I was putting him to bed tonight. But he reminded me "mommy, are you going to get me a clock?"

We went through the drill making sure he can recognize a 6 or a 7 on the digital clock. He passed. But as I was leaving he said "And this is the button I push if I need to get up early to go to Denny's."

We'll see if tomorrow is one of those days he thinks he needs to get up early to go to Denny's! Wish us luck!