Early to Rise

Jack's been getting out of bed really early - 5:30, 5:15, and 4:57 this morning. The way things are going I'll run into him getting up as I'm on my way to bed. This seems to happen in phases -- there's a month or so when he sleeps past 6 and is great, and then stretches like this one, which hopefully passes soon.

Anyway, I used to put him back into bed without saying anything. That's the advice, just put him back into bed without really interacting. Sometimes that helps, and sometimes he'd just show up again 10-15 minutes later. Then I'd ask what was wrong, why he was up. Sometimes he'd have an answer ("I have a booger," or "I can't find Baby Dragon"), and sometimes he'd have an excuse ("Um.....Will you put the blanket over me?" "The blanket that was on you until you got up?" "Yeah."), and sometimes he wouldn't know ("Um....I don't know).

Sometimes I'd try reasoning with him. "You need sleep," or "It's not morning yet." Not surprisingly, that doesn't resonate with a 3-year-old; the idea that he'll be more tired later if he gets up too early. Sometimes putting him back into bed was met with resistance -- wailing, crying, "Don't WANNA go back to bed!" so on and so forth. Great fun.

Recently it's been excuses/explanations, sometimes valid, sometimes not. "I have to go pee." Now, Jack still sleeps in a diaper, but I'm not going to chastise him for wanting to go in the potty, even at 5 a.m. However, when he comes out of his room again 10 minutes later and says, "I have to go poop," and then doesn't go, I tend to get a little suspicious. And when this continues every 15 minutes between 5 and 6, not only do I get exhausted and frustrated, but I'm starting to think there has to be a better way.

The other day I told Jack, after discussing it with Emily, that we'd get him some puzzles to keep in his room, so if he wakes up really early and can't sleep, he can quietly do puzzles. This seemed like a good idea at the time, although there are flaws. For one thing, he needs his sleep, especially nursing a cold and cough at present. He doesn't need to be sitting up doing puzzles at 5:15 in the morning. For another, saying it to him without actually putting puzzles in his room was pretty dumb. The next morning when I put him back in his bed at 5 a.m., he wailed for 10 minutes straight, a tantrum I'd like to believe is fairly unique in the world of 3-year-olds having tantrums:

"I WANT TO DO A PUZZLE!!!!"
"I WANT TO DO A PUZZLE!!!!"
"I .... WANT ... TO ... DO ..... A ....PUZZLLLLLLLLLE!!!!!!"

This morning, perhaps because I was tired, I tried a new tactic. "Remember Santa Claus? He's watching, and he knows if you're asleep or awake. He wants you to sleep until morning." Jack said "Okay." I put him back to bed. Around 10-15 minutes later, Jack went into the bathroom on his own. I heard him fumbling around, maybe going pee, maybe not, and then a few minutes later he was in our doorway, pajamas around his ankles. "Daddy, can you help me put my diaper back on?" I crawled out of bed and went to the bathroom to get his diaper back on. Once we'd done that, Jack said,

"Did Santa bring me presents?"