Detective Mom and the Case of the 4 AM Screamer

We have a mystery at our house. For the last 15 days a certain little person has woken up between 4 and 4:30 AM and not wanted to go back to sleep. Eight months ago I would have told myself to shut up and be grateful but alas in the succeeding months Juan and I have grown accustomed to Caleb sleeping 12 hrs at night and the peaceful evenings and good nights of sleep it means for us.

At first I chalked it up to the ear infection. And then to being away from home. And then to being back home. And then to teeth. And then to being un-Ferberized. But by the beginning of this week I began to wonder if something else was a foot. We've tried several things to get back to normal - Tylenol, Ferberizing, letting him cry, rocking, getting up, feeding him. Nothing has seemed to work though and I was starting to wonder if this was the new normal. That would not make for a happy Mommy and Daddy for sure.

He's gone from four naps a day down to two naps in the last month. Thus, by 6pm the kid is dead tired. If you try and gently suggest a third nap though he wails. And a screeching wail at that - the dog goes outside to escape the noise! So, moving bedtime really isn't an option. I might be able to push him to 6:30 PM but certainly no later.

So there I was. Tired, confused and really at a loss for what Caleb's problem was. I spent a good part of Tuesday reading up on normal schedules and meal plans for 9m old babies. The hard thing though is that an average 12m old weighs 21 lbs. Mine is 9m (this weekend!) and over 23 lbs. He's not normal - he isn't yet ready for the big people food that one year olds eat but yet needs more calories than a typical baby his age. Hmm.

I finally decided to rework his daily schedule some and see if that helped. Here's the new plan:

6am Wake up - 8oz bottle
8am Breakfast - Yo Baby or Fruit (1 jar or 4 cubes)
9am Morning nap
10am Bottle - 8oz
12pm Lunch - Veggie and Fruit (2 jars or 8 cubes); Puffs or diced fruit
1pm Afternoon nap
3pm Bottle - 8oz
5:30pm Dinner - Protein and Veggie (2 jars or 8 cubes); Wagon wheels or diced veggie
6pm Bath
6:15pm Bottle - 8oz
6:30pm Bedtime

Sounds great, right? Works for me. Worked for him on Tuesday and guess what? This morning he slept until 5:22am! Woo hoo! Now, one night isn't proof that the new schedule will fix our problems but I'm hopeful. Ideally, he'd sleep until at least 5:45am but I'm not going to bicker over twenty minutes.

Stay tuned tomorrow - I'll let you know how tonight goes...