Some of you might remember I posted not too long ago about DS' early morning wakings (5-6am) and poo first thing.
After cutting out fruit from his dinner, we've seen less instances of poo first thing (YAY) but oh my goodness is he still cranky as anything when he wakes up, and continues to be for a couple of hours!
I'm desperate to know if there is anything I can do to make the mornings better for us all. By 6:45am I usually feel mentally exhausted and upset from his crankiness, crying and whinging. He is usually yawning occasionally by then but no chance he'll nap that early. DH and I work full-time and we take him to nursery around 7:45/8am. So that's another hour of crankiness and whinging between 6:45-7:45. We are told (and have seen) that he doesn't display this behaviour at nursery.
We've tried everything - leaving him in cot when he wakes up (he just ends up yelling for us), cuddles when we pick him up (he just gets cranky and won't stay still), keeping room dim and just doing nothing while staying with him in room (same thing), bringing him in bed with us (same thing), offering water (doesn't want), offering milk eventually (will drink, but still cranky afterwards), then as last resort, bringing him into living room to read books/play with his blocks. DH and I try to take turns, but DS is so loud in our small flat that it's hard for the one in bed to snooze.
It makes me think he's tired when he wakes up, but then he is a textbook good sleeper apart from the early morning waking and crankiness. Sleeps through 9-10 hours overnight and has 2 naps of 2-3 hours during the day, the first from 9:30/10 and the second from some time between 2-3pm.
Does anyone have first hand experience of this? Did your baby/toddler grow out of it? I have asked our friends with babies and none of them were/are like this in the morning. By the way I am not keen on doing controlled crying (and our neighbours would be either!!) Sorry this post is so long, and thanks for reading.