I've got some re-programming to do with Elsa. When she came to us she seemed to have a built in clock that rose her at 4:30 every morning. It makes sense, she came from the East so her inner clock told her that it was later than it was here on the West. I thought that I might never be able to sleep in again, which for us is like 6:30. Once she got a bit older she grew accustom to getting up to the sounds of my son's alarm clock. She couldn't wait to race down to greet him every morning................AT 4:00 AM.
Then Elsa did a quick transition from ex-pen sleeping to not when we traveled across the country the second time. Not wanting to haul the huge ex-pen in and out of the hotel every night we just stopped using it. This meant that she now had free range in the bedroom and her sleeping spot of choice was our bed, of course. Luke sleeps on our bed but we quickly discovered that she was not going to work out on the bed. Not that we don't want her up there with us, it's just that she has to be across me. When I say across me I am not exaggerating, she lies completely across me. It boggles my mind how heavy she feels, it's like there is a magnet under our bed trying to pull her body to the floor.
So the place we are at now is Elsa sleeps on a bed on the floor beside me until she is invited up. We started inviting her up as soon as we wake up in the morning but that has become an issue. She wants up earlier and earlier and is waking me up for hours in the middle of the night in the process. Not good, everyone needs sleep. So, we need to fix this. Being that this girl is scary intelligent I have implemented a new rule. Elsa is not allowed up on the bed until the alarm goes off. She learns routine at an alarming rate so this morning when the alarm went off my husband had not even got her whole name out of his mouth and she was up and across my back.
I don't mind the whole poodle on top of me thing in the morning. I can drift in and out of sleep but I cannot sleep like this all night long. We have tried to move her but she is like a lead weight. Once she does come up she is so happy to see everyone that she licks my husband, Luke's feet and then my back, arms or whatever happens to be there for the licking. Then she settles in across me and falls asleep, happy as a clam.
I am thinking that this "time" marker will give her a clearer image of relative time. She will know exactly when it is time instead of sitting and waiting. This morning she went and whined at my husbands side of the bed to get up, he looked at it was 4:58am. The alarm is set for 5:00 am so yes, she is crazy smart. She will get this whole alarm thing and when she does it will help on the weekend when we would like to sleep past 5:00 am because it just won't go off.
She will get a better sleep with the implementation of this new rule, because she will sleep until she hears the alarm. I'm sure that in a couple of days she'll just be hopping up on the bed at the alarm and we will soon be able to sleep through it. That is my hope anyway, I need a good night sleep.