The amazing 12-hour sleep

Layla has become a reliably good sleeper since about 4 months, when we officially 'sleep trained' her (out of necessity). Now, she sleeps from about 6 pm until about 6 am. Everyone says we are very lucky, and I feel very lucky, but this does come with a little trouble that we are still working around.

First, going to bed at 6 pm is fine as long as your parents managed to get home from work, pick you up, feed you and bathe you and get you in your pajamas by then. If not, then we have to deal with an insane mad tantrum (she says 'GET ME TO BED RIGHT NOW!!!' and throws a mega-fit over it). We have tried with all our might to change her bedtime to a little later, but it seems we are working against some sort of internal clock that can't be changed.

Second, it is actually about a million times harder to get up at 6 am than to get up at 7 or even 6:30 am. At 6 am I am totally wrecked. And she often gets up even earlier, like at 5:30. And for a week she got up at 5:15. It almost killed us. Our house is small, so even if one of us gets up with her to let the other one sleep, it's not very good sleep. And when she gets up at 5:15 or 5:30 she demands to go back down for a nap at 7:30 which is right when I want to pack her up and head off to the daycare (and when you've been up since 5:15 you really want to just go back to bed at 7:30 which I did one morning but it wasn't really helpful).

And third, the time just changed so now she wants to go to bed at 5 and get up at 5, which is much much worse. So while everyone else is saying 'yay! I get to sleep in an extra hour!' I am grinding my teeth and worrying how I'm going to accommodate our little sleep monster's super-sleep schedule.

Fortunately, the first day of the time change (today) she slept until 7 (which is now 6) and stayed up until 7 (which is now 6) so maybe she's adjusting herself and it won't be so bad. I have always wondered if her internal clock is actually responding to external things like when she gets home from daycare and when the neighbor starts up his car early in the morning. If so perhaps this will not be so bad after all. Nevertheless, I've convinced the Studly Hubby to go to bed at 8:30 at night for a few nights just in case. It's weird but the extra sleep has been soooooo nice...