As I've previously mentioned, Tom and I are both night owls. Through some freak of genetics, however, we fear that we have created a morning person. An early morning person.
Dorothy has been an early riser since she started sleeping through the night, rarely sleeping past 6:00 AM. For the last couple of weeks, however, she's been waking up sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 every morning, and screaming until someone gets up with her.
Sometimes she settles down reasonably quickly when someone comes to get her, but frequently she's been inconsolable for quite a while, and touchy for even longer. A couple of times, she seemed almost not to recognize us, just arching her back and screaming.
Tom took her to the pediatrician on Thursday, and she does look like she has an ear infection, so she's on Amoxicillin again. That morning, she also gave some evidence that she'd been constipated (I'll spare you the details, but it involved four diaper changes in two hours.) Since then, she's been a bit better, sleeping until 5:30 for the last two nights. But she still wants to get up then and play.
She doesn't necessarily need a lot of attention during her early morning play, but it is not acceptable for the parent watching her to lie down on the couch. What she really likes is to sit on my lap while I sit on the floor, but I'm not allowed even to lean over and rest my head on the couch. If I do, she fusses and complains and grabs my hair to try to haul me upright. I'm not sure what the problem is with me being comfortable, but she lets it be known that I'm not to do it.
Someone please tell me that all toddlers are morning people, and that I'll be trying to haul her out of bed before noon in a few years, please!
Posted by Elizabeth Nugent at June 25, 2005 09:21 PM