Here is our sleep solution:

1. Temporarily, we will bathe, feed, and soothe him and put him down, drowsy but awake, at 5:30pm. (see child #1)

2. Extinction. Do not go to him until about 6am. The night awakenings will disappear first in several days followed by the early morning wake ups. Several days later, he will be more comfortable taking a nap that starts around 1pm or so.

3. When he has more consolidated night sleep and a later nap, than he will look and behave substantially better between 4-6pm. When this occurs, we will allow him to stay up later. In the future, we will always watch him between 4-6pm and make a judgment call to put him down for bed between 6-6:30pm: earlier if his sleep tank is going dry between 4-6pm and later if he had a late and/or long nap. I expect this entire process to take a few weeks.

4. If you initially see improvement in consolidated sleep but he starts to get up too early to start the day, than this super early bedtime might be backfiring. If so, we would allow him to have a bedtime between 6-6:30pm. 7pm is too late. There will be some trial and error to find the sweet spot for his best bedtime.

5. In the future when he is well rested, ignore everything I've taught you and ignore naps and/or early bedtimes about 1-2 times per month. Well rested kids can handle occasional disruptions.

6. If he accumulates a bigger sleep debt (illness, family vacation, crossing time zones), than on one night only do the "reset' of a 5:30 bedtime to repay his sleep debt and ignore all protest crying .

7. A "response burst' will occur when he has better night sleep and then out of character starts crying out again at night. This is to be expected. He is just trying to get back to old style to see if mom and dad might come and give him some attention. Check to make sure there is no fever, vomiting, or appearing ill and if he is well, walk away without soothing.

8. A common scenario is that because both of you now are highly motivated, you will see success fairly quickly. But because of long Spring/Summer days you allow him in the future to stay up a little later. Initially, he looks well and appears to tolerate this later bedtime. Then, all of a sudden (cumulative sleepiness) he's back to night wakings. A slightly too late bedtime causes children to cycle in and out of healthy sleep and this frustrates parents because nothing seems to stick. Now that you have a young baby, it's even more important to keep reasonably early bedtimes in place-for both children. So this Summer, I suggest that when you are socializing, each of you take turns going home early with the kids so the other can stay longer with friends and enjoy adult company.

9. Sleep need is positively correlated with intelligence. If he is unusually bright, he might always take great naps and thrive on an early bedtime. Don't compare his sleep needs with other children his age. Always watch him more than watch the clock.