Now that Kaili will hang out on her play mat on and off during the day, it really wears her out. She bats at the toys, moves her arms and legs and it must be good exercise. I know this because this is what I found after about 1 hour of playtime.
She is sleeping so well at night I just wish I could keep her up a little later. By 6:30pm she is so cranky, tired and ready for bed. I don’t want to let her nap at that time because then we would be up really late. So I try to find ways to distract her until at least 7:30pm and then I will put her down. This is causing her to wake at 5 or 6 am. If we could push her bed time to at least 9pm maybe she will sleep until 7am. Any ideas? This is what my evenings look like when she is ready for bed!
The Art of Thyming 
Our pediatrician today told us the only way to get them to wake later is to put them to bed earlier. My sleep book guy (Weissbluth) says, “The most common cause for waking up too early before four months of age is extreme fussiness/colic. The most common cause, after four months, is a too-late bedtime.” Since Kaili isn’t colicky (and I know she’s not over four months), maybe it’s the later bedtime??? He suggests to try putting her down 20 minutes earlier for four nights in a row to see if she will fall asleep at the earlier time and sleep in later. He says if this works to try it again for four more nights until you get to a point where the bedtime is too early and she won’t go to sleep.
How did I access this information so quickly, you ask? Because I had it bookmarked in my book and have read it several times thanks to Trey’s consistent 5:30am wake up call.
hmmm so I should try putting her down at 7 instead of 7:30? It seems on the days that she is really tired/fussy early she still wont actually fall asleep for good until 8. Like tonight she woke from her nap around 5:15 and then played on her mat for an hour. Then I took her outside until close to 7 and then fed her and put her down. Of course she falls asleep right away but wakes up continuously countless times until 8 and then she will finally stay asleep.
I don’t really have any ideas cause Jeff was always a good sleeper no matter what time he went to bed. He still is a good sleeper. I, on the other hand need help to figure out how to keep my new little kitten from waking up at 4:30 in the morning wanting to play. hee hee I got your thank you!!
Wait a minute! Janet complains when I nod off too early; she wants be to be lively with her, you guys as we drink wine & talk after 9:00 PM. But I get cranky & nod off. Let me know what works with Kaili!