The baby has started to get up around 4 am. Only she doesn't really get up- she's half awake and half asleep, not really doing much of anything but not being willing to be put down in her crib either. The result of this is that my wife can't go back to sleep, and nobody who has to go to work in the morning can realistically keep getting up at 4 am.

So, what can we do? This is what we're trying. When the baby wakes up at four or four-thirty, my wife has to deal with her until about five-thirty. At that point she can wake me up, and go back to sleep for a few hours while I take the baby upstairs.

Upstairs in her baby swing, the gentle back and forth rocking motion transforms the baby from being half-awake and half-asleep into being completely asleep, which is a power her crib does not possess. Freed by the power of the magic crib from the tyranny of an awake baby before sunrise, I am free to brew a pot of coffee, make my breakfast, and read for a little while in an environment of peace and quiet that I have scarcely ever experienced in the past three years. It's not a bad arrangement, all things considered. The only downside is that I never really get enough sleep this way, so I start to crash around 5 pm, and feel downright awful by 9 pm. So that part is not so great, but under the current circumstances I think it's probably a pretty good plan.