Sleep? Maybe?

Sleeping issues are cropping up again here at our house. Gah. And I once naively thought it would all be solved once he started sleeping through the night.

We've had a span of several weeks now in which William's wakeup times have been all over the map. Some mornings, he's up around 8. Other mornings, he bonks on the button of his crib aquarium before 7. Some days, he wakes up early, but is content to talk to his stuffed animals for a little while. And then on other days, his eyes pop open only nanoseconds before his mouth, in a huge yell, does. Yesterday, he slept 'til...ahh!...about 8:15. But today, he was screaming to be liberated from the mean confines of his crib at 7:15. I don't even know what to expect anymore. I feel like the opposite of Pavlov's dog.

Don't even let me get started on bedtime. My child has readily accepted bedtime for months and months. And then, one night last week, we put him in the crib, and he started standing up and sitting down and turning around in a very agitated way. "No, no, no!" he said, over and over, sounding very upset. Nothing we said or did calmed him down. Finally, we just handed him his blanket, turned off the light, and shut the door. He cried for about ten minutes, until in the middle of one loud cry, he stopped suddenly. He had cried himself to sleep. He almost never needs to do that. It was very weird, especially the agitation. He was fine the next night, then agitated again the next night. Fine the next night, agitated the next. He was minorly agitated last night, but he didn't really cry. He just had trouble getting all settled in his crib. I don't know what to think. Was he overtired? Was something wrong? I still have no idea.

And naptimes have been wonky, too. Some days, two hours. Those are decent days. Some days, one hour and maybe 15 minutes. Those are bad days. Especially when he wakes up in a bad mood. As a general rule, William is a pretty happy kid, but NOT when he first wakes up, especially if he's still tired.

So I don't know what's going on. I really don't. I realize that his sleep needs are going to change as he grows up. But he used to be pretty consistent, if nothing else, and I have no clue what is setting off this wild pattern of wakeups.