I'm sorry to post here, as my son is almost 5, but this forum has been very helpful for me in the past!
All of our son's life he has resisted sleep. We used to have a lot of trouble getting him to sleep until we started using a very small dose of melatonin last year, on the recommendation of a pediatric sleep specialist (physician). So now bedtime is great, but lately he is waking up very early. He has done this throughout his life- he cycles between his "normal" wake up time of 6-6:15am or so, and between earlier wake ups (and very occasionally later wake ups of 6:45). In the last week he has woken up almost exactly 15 minutes earlier each morning, such that we are now at 4:30am. His bedtime is the same (melatonin at 6pm, sleeping around 7pm), and no nap (stopped in the last few months). Surprisingly, he's been in a pretty good mood the last few days.
I can't decide whether to:
1. just accept that I'm not in control of this, and just know that it will eventually change
2. try to put him to bed earlier with the idea that he is overtired
3. try to put him to bed later with the idea that he is waking up because he has had enough sleep
We've tried a light with a timer, with no effect. He doesn't care about following rules at that time of day.
Another weird thing is that for the last 3 mornings he is pooping right when he wakes up, and it's pretty loose. But he was already waking up earlier and earlier before that started, so I don't think that's the cause.
Thank you in advance for your help!
