Nighttime Woes on the 20th Day of Advent

The past 4-5 nights have been really difficult for Tate.  I usually get him in the crib between 7-7:15, sometimes earlier on the weekends because his naps tend to run about 30 minutes shorter here at home, so he's usually awake by 1:30pm instead of the 2pm he sleeps to usually at daycare.  Half the time at night he goes right to sleep, the other half he piddles around and tosses and turns for 15 minutes or so.  But the past 4 nights at home (he was at my parents' on Saturday night) he has tossed and turned until at least 8pm.  Yet he still wakes for the day between 5-5:30am.  Even worse he's becoming very agitated around 4am.  He cries out, whines, fusses at the same time now for 4 days.  I've tried letting him just fuss it out as he quiets down every other minute or so, but sometimes I'm just too tired, so I get up and put him in bed with me.  Wherein I get kicked, poked and harassed.  


But here's the thing...his eyes are usually closed.  He seems unaware of his surroundings though he stops the whining and crying if I put him in bed with me.  And since the day he was born 4am has been his sweet spot.  He usually ate every 3 hours during the day as well as night.  At night however he would go down at 7pm and sleep until 12:30/1am starting the day he turned 6w1d.  Then he would be back up at 4am for his next feeding.  At the 1am feeding he would eat and go right back to sleep, no fuss no muss.  But that 4am feeding cycle was an absolute disaster.  He always, always had a really hard time going back to sleep.  And as a non-CIO mommy I ended up rocking him, walking with him you name it as did my mother when she was here to help me.  Worse I went back to work when he was 9 weeks old and had to get up around 5:45am to get ready.  So, I lived in a state of exhaustion!  He just had a hard time going back to sleep though he usually would but he would be up for his day the same time I woke up with a smile on his face.


Fast forward to 2y4m28d old and we're back to this damn 4:00am business.  Sleep has never been Tate's strong suit as he just doesn't need as much as all the books say he should need.  Rarely do I have the witching hour in the evening and I rarely have an overtired child because I am so very protective of his sleep.  He has never, ever missed a nap whether I had to have him nap in the car or stroller or in the Moby Wrap.  Not one.  I've laid with him, I've held him while he screamed because he didn't want to nap, I've lost my temper because he didn't want to sleep, yet he always, always fell asleep.  Always.  And when he has a short nap he's in bed early to compensate.  


So what is going on?  His daycare teacher thinks he may be squirming about because he needs to pee.  But he doesn't pee.  He has woken up dry from overnight sleep for the past 3 1/2 months with maybe 2 times of urinating.  And this is nothing I've done to have him do this.  And when he wakes in the morning I don't put him on the potty right away;  usually it's about 30 minutes after he's awakened and he doesn't usually pee until I sit him on it (say 6 days out of 7).  


To make  matters worse my plan is to take away his pacifiers on Monday, the 26th.  I've really been talking up how Santa is going to take his sue-ys and give them to all the new babies who need them.  I try to make sure he knows he will be keeping his hippo lovey.  I cannot imagine going into this with sleep issues at the outset.  Should I?  Thoughts?  He's developing a unilateral cross-bite, so the pacifiers need to go, but at what psychological, physical and emotional price for Tate at this point?  Me and my upcoming more lack of sleep is not my concern;  I'm old enough to deal with that.  Part of the motherhood job.  And as attached as he is I foresee this taking some time to adjust to, but I'm just worried that we're going into this sleep deprived.  I am going to try to get him to bed early over the Christmas weekend to try to make up for the sleep he's missing right now.  He is starting to exhibit the effects of the not sound sleep from this 4am 'wake-up'.  He whined and cried at drop-off this morning when he had to wait for everyone else to be ready to go play and apparently this afternoon around 4pm he just went all-a-weeping because he couldn't play with the Thomas trains because his class had an activity to do.  Ms. L had him sit by her after a while because he just kept a-crying.  That is not normal Tate behavior, so it surprised her as well as me.  I know it's because he's so tired and unable to cope with disappointments when he's so exhausted.


Is it nightmares?  Dreams?  Does he miss me and thus he's subconsciously crying out for me to get him which is why he relaxes once in bed with me though he still moves about.  I just don't know.  


I'm up for any and all suggestions, thoughts and commiseration.


In other festive news, we opened an Elmo book this evening on the 20th day of Advent.  Big smiles!