Two posts in two days...what??

I would like to thank daylight savings time for solving our sleep issues!

Joel was waking up around 5:30am, sometimes 5am for the last few months and he would not go back to sleep no matter what I did. I tried putting him to bed earlier, he'd wake up at 5:30. I tried putting him to bed later, he'd wake up at 5. Because he was up so early, his naps were early and then the whole cycle would start again. I really didn't know how to get out of it. I asked his doctor at his 18 month appointment if it was bad for him to be waking up that early and she told me that some babies just wake up early. After that, I resigned myself to the fact that we'd be rising with the sun, no- long before the sun, forever.

Enter daylight savings time. We decided to put Joel to bed at 8 instead of 7 that first day, because we figured he'd know no different and maybe 5am would turn into 6am in the morning. So far, it has worked great. He hasn't woken up before 6 since and sometimes he'll even still go to bed at 7 instead of 8.

Along with the early waking had come some nap drama as well over the past few months. He'd skip his nap one day, then desperately need it the next. Or, take a morning nap and then skip the afternoon. Yesterday was the first time he's ever taken one long nap, instead of just dropping one nap or the other.

It amazes me how much his sleeping patterns effect my quality of life and my mood! I felt so invigorated yesterday afternoon after 3 uninterrupted hours! I could get used to that. Then he slept in until 7 today. I pretty much jumped out of bed, I was so excited that the sun was up and that he had slept so late, after taking such a good nap yesterday. I just hope we can keep this going!

We spent the morning at the park and walked what I consider a very long way for a toddler, and what was confirmed as a very long way when he got tired and I carried him back the whole way to the car!

He was wiped out though and I'm hoping that will lead to another long nap. I know this post has way too many numbers in it, so if you are as good at math as I am, you are probably a little lost by now and you can just enjoy looking at the pictures. That's pretty much what I did during math class, but that's a whole other topic.