Eureka!

There are moments of sudden clarity in one's life when it truly feels as though others must actually be able to see the light bulb flick on over your head, and yesterday was one of those moments here in this household.  For weeks we have been struggling to get Calvin down for naps, and at night he seems reluctant to go to bed even though he is clearly exhausted.  And don't even get us started on the reappearance of the night wakings.  So Thursday morning, in a moment of utter desperation, we were racking our brains for ways to correct this new behavior when that light bulb lighting moment of clarity hit us - obviously his sleep patterns are changing, duh!  When we think about it, the last time we were experiencing such difficulties was when he was getting ready to drop the fourth nap and go to three, so we looked in our baby manual and lo and behold, around 7-8 months babies usually drop the third nap.  Duh!  So Thursday we did just that, keeping him up longer between naps, letting him sleep longer for the two naps, and putting him down earlier for bed at night, and we continued that trend yesterday.  The result?  Very easy naps and bedtime (he is even putting himself to sleep again!!!), and he's sleeping through the night again!  He is getting up about an hour early in the morning, but goes back to sleep if we encourage it, so we aren't too concerned.  Besides, when choosing between being up for an hour at three or getting up at six, we'll take the latter of the two, thank you.