You Can Lead A Horse....

Just a disclaimer to all those who are preggo or have infants--Troy is not the normal so don't let this scare you at all.

Troy's sleep has been an issue with me since birth. He was the child that didn't sleep through the night consistently until age 3. He has always been an early riser--I am talking 4:30/5AM for months (yes, so all of you who complain about not getting to sleep past 7 or 8, I have chuckled), he has had issues with nightmares and even worse, night terrors. He is the lightest sleeper so any noise--even a creak in a floorboard outside his room would wake him. It was so bad that I would isolate myself to one room and not leave until he was awake. He was a short napper--think 30-45 min--as an infant that didn't improve much even when everyone swore he would get better. "Once he starts crawling, he'll sleep so much better." "Once he's on one nap, he'll nap for 2 or more hours." Never happened. He did start napping for about 1 hour 15 min on average when he was about 2.5 but nothing like what other people said would happen. Now, he's 5 and he's done with naps. We still make him do quiet time because we both need the break, but he doesn't sleep usually. Yes, everyone said, "Take away his nap and I bet he'll sleep in." Guess what everyone?!?!?! They're wrong. He's been getting up earlier than normal since he stopped napping so now he's sleeping maybe 10 hours a night on a good night and he's been getting up around 5:30/5:45. Luckily, he's not allowed out of his room until 7 so it doesn't affect me too often (unless he starts singing, drops his books or talks to himself). We have done everything people have suggested--a nice quiet bedtime routine, putting him to bed earlier, white noise, avoiding sugar at night.....and it remains the same. I hate worrying about it but I am so afraid that it's going to affect him at school because I can see him getting really grumpy, tired and just exhausted, but as the saying goes...

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Yep, I can do all the things right, but I can't force my child to actually fall asleep, stay asleep and understand that when you do wake up, you can actually go back to sleep. Maybe one day, I will stop being so frustrated, but for now, I continue to get aggravated. On the positive side, getting him up and ready when he starts Kindergarten next Fall won't be such a challenge.