We’ve always been really lucky when it comes to our boys and their sleeping.

There are definitely challenges, but we’ve been quite blessed when it comes to the whole “sleeping through the night” thing, and in general bedtime is not a struggle as long as we honor the routine. For the most part, lack of sleep for myself has been due mostly to being a night-owl who stays up way too late, rather than because I am woken up really unreasonably early by one or both of the boys.

Since baby Coltrane (9-months old) moved in to share a room with his big brother Tucker (now 3!), however, mornings have been starting earlier and earlier.

I’m not completely sure what it is, but my suspicion is that Tuck is reaching the end of a sleep-cycle right around the time my wife is unavoidably making some noise in the adjacent kitchen, getting her breakfast ready or packing lunch before running out the door to the office. I think it wakes him up juuuuuust enough that he starts Wake-Up Mode, which usually involves a lot of crying until I come and get him.

Yes, he waits. I can actually count the number of times I’ve discovered that he has gotten up out of bed and wandered out of his room on two fingers, because it has literally only happened twice.

This perk, of little worry that I’ll wake up one morning to find Tucker rooting through the fridge or attempting to reprogram the TiVo, does have a downside, though.

After Cole moved in with him, Tuck’s Wake-Up Mode crying would often unceremoniously wake up Cole as well. Rather than just having one kid who is up earlier than I would like, I have two, both of them crying and wanting one-on-one attention, with one of them not particularly ready to be awake in the first place. I found myself most mornings going from a dead sleep to immediately trying to help a crying toddler (probably in need of a change out of pee-soaked jammies) and a sobbing infant.

It’s part of the job, but not a great way to start your day.

I’ve found that even if it’s particularly early (i.e. Tuck should really still be sleeping) my best bet is usually to get him out of his room ASAP, and laying down on the couch with a pillow and blanket. Most mornings, if I act fast enough, Cole will fall back to sleep for a little while. Tuck won’t actually sleep on the couch, but I can usually get him to lay quietly until it’s time to get up, giving me a chance to wake up myself and start getting breakfast together. Everything feels so much more “in control,” if that makes sense.

All of this is to say that last night I had a brief conversation with my wife about how she can help me with this.

See, most mornings when this goes down she is frantically trying to get things together to get out the door on time, and leaves it to me to deal with the boys. This is totally understandable, of course. But this week I’ve been sick, fighting a cold, and between the nighttime medication and stuffed up head it’s taking a lot longer for my brain to register the noises coming through the baby monitor. As a result, I’m not getting in there fast enough to get Tuck out before he wakes up Cole beyond the Point of No Return. I asked if, when she hears Tuck starting to stir, she could quickly get him out of there first for me. No problem, she says.

This morning I was woken up by her shaking me.

“Chris. Chris!”

“Hrm?”

“You need to get up.”

“Glerm.”

“I heard Tuck talking, so I went in to get him before he woke up Cole, like you said, but it was too late.”

“Blergh?”

“Yes, of course they’re both awake. Tuck is sitting in Cole’s crib.”

“…”

“Good morning!”