5am Comes Pretty Early

Can't sleep anymore, mum

This is what baby E looks like at 5am in the morning, tired but not able to sleep. I'm not sure what affects his wake-up time because he goes to bed at the same time every evening, give or take 10 minutes (sometimes up to 30 minutes).

I've tried making his bedtime later, doing more activities with him during the day to tire him out, adjusting the a/c colder / warmer, dressing him in long sleeves, short sleeves and a bunch of other things but they don't seem to affect his wake-up time. So most of the time he wakes up around 6:30am, sometimes 5am and sometimes 7am.  Usually he's content to nurse in the morning and roll around the bed until I wake up, but sometimes he wakes up and is ready to go immediately. These are the mornings that I dread, I'm absolutely NOT a morning person and I need lots of sleep (LOTS of sleep).

So when baby E wakes up at 5am, I change his overnight diaper then put his Mother Goose DVD on and let him watch until I'm awake enough to start the day with him. Before having kids, I SWORE up and down that I would not let my children watch TV before they turn 2 years old. I guess I have to eat my words now because if I didn't have Mother Goose to distract him in the morning, I'd be a complete wreck.

The hardest things about motherhood so far? Sleep deprivation. I am looking forward to the day when baby E is old enough to wake up, wash up and feed himself independently, that's my light at the end of the motherhood tunnel.