Intruder Alert!

When Joshua was learning how to "go through sleep cycles," he often woke up in the middle of his naps for a little while. Sometimes he would cry for a few minutes, and other times he would make little noises before sleeping for another hour or so. David and I used to look at each other and say, "Intruder alert!" Lately, a different type of intruder has interrupted his sleep from time to time.

Joshua has a mobile above his head and a little stuffed dog tied to the side of his crib. They both play the same song. We thought that the mobile was defective in some way because the song started playing spontaneously in the middle of Joshua's nap or shortly after we put him to bed for the night. It seemed like it stopped before it completely finished unwinding. One afternoon, I went to look at him while he was sleeping, and Joshua was holding onto the little ring that you pull to make the puppy play music. I just thought it was so cute! It dawned on me later that it wouldn't take much coordination or effort to pull the ring and make the song play. David was pretty sure it was the mobile, so we stopped winding it for awhile. It started happening more and more, and Sunday, I was so frustrated because it was clearly waking him up! That afternoon, David caught Joshua in the act, and it turns out that the mobile was not waking him up, rather Joshua was waking up and playing with his little puppy friend. We have since put it out of reach!