Just call me angel in the morning

Astrid keeps waking up earlier and earlier each morning. She goes to bed at the same time every night and we have the same bedtime routine (bath, bottle, bed), so nothing has changed on that end. She used to wake up at 7:00 AM but then she started getting up at 6:30, 6:00, 5:30, and today it was 5:00 AM (ouch!).

Yesterday after changing her and feeding her, I tried my best to get her to fall back asleep in her bassinet. I thought she'd fall back to sleep easily since it was still dark and she had a full belly. Uh...wrong. After 10 minutes of looking like she was finally falling asleep, she'd only wake herself up and be wide awake again. When I say wide awake, I don't mean where she's quietly playing in her bassinet or staring up at her teddy bear mobile waiting for the sun to come up and the bird to start chirping. This was a fussing, not happy, making lots of noise kind of waking up. In the end it woke Uwe up and momma bear, papa bear, and baby bear were all up and grouchy as can be.

So this morning as soon as I heard Astrid stirring at 5 AM I got up and made a bottle and then after changing her, whisked her away downstairs to feed her. After her bottle she didn't fall asleep immediately but I saw that she was starting to get sleepy so I put her down next to me on the couch where she fell asleep for an hour. What a treat! It's been a long time since Astrid has slept next to me. I miss it.

When heading downstairs I grabbed a blanket for Astrid but I forgot to get one for myself. So when she woke up after an hour I was happy to get up and go upstairs and snuggle under a warm blanket. When taking this photo it was around 6 AM and still a bit too dark to take photos without the flash.
Here's one I took without the flash. It was way too dark but I used my photoshop starter kit to autocorrect it. The blinking red eye light on the camera always startles Astrid. I like how she can grab onto me now (except when she grabs my hair). I read that soon she'll be reaching out to me and her dad to be picked up and will give hugs and kisses soon too. I can't wait for that.
Here's a photo where she doesn't look startled. Just a happy sleepy faced Astrid.