Early to bed, way too early to rise!

Isabella began sleeping through the night last fall.  She had two sleep regressions the last being around Christmas.  She is super easy to put to bed and once in bed stays put until morning.  Morning is where the trouble still lies as her definition of morning and mine differ at times. 

There were times earlier in the year when she would wake up between 3-5am.  When she was still taking a bottle I would feed her and then put her in bed with me.  She would usually fall back to sleep within about 45 minutes (even sooner on good days!) and sleep for at least another hour.  These episodes were random and manageable.

Then about the time we kicked the bottle and switched to milk (late March) the 3-5 am wake ups became an almost daily occurrence and she wanted to go downstairs and start the day.  She would not drink her milk upstairs.  She would not lay with me in the glider or bed.  She would only calm down once we were downstairs where it was pitch black outside and no one else in their right mind would be up for hours.

I am all for the early bird catching the work, but anything before 5 is still NIGHT time in my book.

In searching for help I found that cutting back or even down on her naps might help.  It would help for a couple of days and then we would be right back to it.  We made sure she ate a good dinner and moved bedtime back some so that her tummy was full later.  Changing her bedtime did nothing.  We tried earlier and we tried later and still the results were the same.  Eventually if she woke up before 5 I just let her cry:(.  It was always just a whiny cry but not the way either one of wanted to start the day.  It helped some in that after about 5 minutes of crying she would lay back down.  She would lay back down for like 10 minutes and then try again.  Rinse and repeat until 5 am.

Over time the formula seems to be 2 naps (each one can last no longer than 90 minutes), peanut butter and banana smoothie and a walk before bed followed by a 7/7:15 bed time.  There is still the occasional 4:30/4:45 wake up (this was the case twice this week), but most days she gets up between 5-5:30. 

My dream is that as she gets older and we cut the morning nap she will sleep until 6.  I don't know the likelihood since she has been waking up around 5:30 since birth, but a girl can dream right?!?