I have a Master's degree

I don't write this to say that I am smart.

Rather, to note that I have attended a number of years of school, feel that I have decent skills of logic and reasoning, and should really be able to evaluate a situation thoughtfully and come up with solutions.

My daughter must have a PhD then, because I am beyond bamboozled in trying to elucidate the nuances of her morning wake time.

As I have lamented before, she is an early riser. As in the 5's. We had finally worked through our night waking issue and she was pretty consistently sleeping into the early 6's, which I thought was as much as we could hope for until she was a surly teenager.

Until.

She stayed at Grammy's while we were in Hawaii. I was fearful that she would wake up early for the grandparents, but NOOOOO, she slept late! Several days in a row! And would then go down and take a 2 hour nap! What the what? Who is this clone baby and where is my real baby?

I was pleased, of course, that she was a good girl. I also felt that if she did it there, she could do it at home. Ha. Not long after we got home I began to tinker with her nap schedule (more on that debacle later) and she did extend her wake time until 6:30ish on most days, probably out of sheer exhaustion.

Then, we went to Texas to visit friends. She slept in a pack n' play, in a strange place, and slept late both mornings. Like past 7:15am. I had to check and make sure she wasn't dead. And, of course when we returned home, right back to the 5's. Grrrrr.

The variables, as I see them:
Grammy's room has a crib, is carpeted and very dark. I think it is probably a similar temperature to our home room, and I don't think she runs a humidifier like we do at home.

Friend's room was a pack n' play in an office, not especially dark, carpeted and no humidifier.

Our room has a crib, wood blinds that are closed, hardwood floors and a humidifier set on high.

(Doesn't this sound like some algebra problem? If Tom is older than Annie, and Betty is younger than Steve, what are their ages? GAH!!)

So, short of carpeting our second floor and installing black-out shades, I am at a loss. I can't for the life of me figure out why the humidifier would wake her up since it has been on every day of her life, but I did turn it down last night and she woke at 5:15am.

I do understand that babies aren't like algebra and there isn't always (or never is) an x+y = z solution.

BUT.

The 7:15am wake time is now like some tantalizing fruit hanging low on a branch that I just can't reach. Who can help me?