Wow...sounds familar. My little guy was doing the SAME thing...he has recently gotten a little better because of the time change!!! No matter what time he would go to bed, he would get up every morning between 5:00 AM - 5:30 AM. I too, was going crazy. It is hard when both people in the house hold work full time and you NEED the sleep!
He now sleeps until 6:00 - 6:30 AM, which is better. This is what I have done differently... I put a big thick fluffy blanket inside his crate. I had a small one in there - now he can get real comfortable and has less space to move (so he has to lay down!). I also put a toy in there for him every night. In addition, I cover the crate with a blanket so that he can't see how light it is in the morning. Lastly, I started setting my alarm to go off at a certain time (6:30 AM) and will NOT get up for him until that alarm goes off. My thought is that he will start to notice that I don't get him up until that alarm goes off. In the next few weeks, I'll make it a little later to hopefully achieve more sleep! Try that. At least I get one additional hour of sleep which is better than nothing!!! I don't let Stomper eat/drink after 7 PM and make him go potty before we go to sleep. That is antoher helpful tip to make sure he doesn't need to go potty.
I also tried to ignore him, tell him NO, tap the crate, move him to another room, etc...didn't help even a little! Good luck. |