As y’all know, I decided to become a morning person. I said that I’d let you know how it goes, so here is an update, detailing how this past week went…
monday
When my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m., I hit SNOOZE. Sooo, not the greatest start. I proceeded to hit that button every nine minutes for about an hour, until I finally decided to get my butt out of bed.
It’s always harder to wake up when it’s still dark out. It happened to be raining, too, which was always a comforting sound to me. Since I delayed the start of my day by only one hour, I’m going to chalk it up to a result of daylight savings time, and consider it a WIN. 😀
My husband had set the coffee to brew at 5:30 a.m. (bless him), so it was ready by the time I got downstairs. I grabbed a cup, my laptop, and a seat on my couch. I figured I should take advantage of the silence while everyone else was still in bed, so I used the opportunity to write.
When the kids finally woke up, I was in the perfect mood to greet them. It’s amazing how different your attitude is toward your kids when they’re not the ones who startled you awake.
tuesday
Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t get to bed until after 1:00 a.m. Monday night. As a result, I did NOT want to get out of bed early… and so I did not.
I’m a firm believer in listening to your body. If it needs the extra rest and you can accommodate it, then do it.
wednesday
thursday
There was a really good chance I’d get up early, but the baby was stirring, so I opted to keep him asleep instead. Oh, and I kept falling back to sleep in between his little grumbles.
That said, I did actually get up before everyone else.
Unfortunately, I only had time to go to the bathroom, grab a cup of coffee, and write 38 words. Before I knew it, I heard the dreaded pitter patter of someone needing something from me. (On the plus side, I gained an adorable new writing partner who likes to cuddle and ask too many questions.)
friday
I got up earlier than I had on any day this week: 5:45 a.m. (ish)! And so did my husband!
And so did our 3-year-old.
Womp. Womp.
To be fair, he gave us a solid 15-minute head start. And our 5-year-old gave us 30 minutes! Super cool.
what i’ve learned
Clearly, this morning-person stuff is a lot harder than it looks. But I’m not ready to give up yet!
I just need to make a few lifestyle tweaks to give myself a better shot at hitting the 5:30 a.m. mark. Here’s what I’ll be doing moving forward:
- Going to bed earlier – While this might seem easy enough to do, it’s actually pretty difficult—even more so than getting up early. I realized that I have mental/emotional ties to staying up late. Until this “morning experiment,” nights have been the only time of day that offer a break from the little kids. There comes a sense of relief after putting them to bed, and the opportunity to bond with the bigger kids and my partner. It’s when I can watch trashy TV with my teens and/or snobby indie films with my husband. Hence, it’s the time of day when I struggle to do what’s best for me and my body and my brain. If I go to bed too early, the guilt is thick.
- Eliminating caffeine in the evening – I found that because I was getting up earlier this week, I was feeling tired earlier. I knew that I didn’t want to walk around like a zombie, so I tried a late afternoon cup of coffee one day and a cup of decaf another day. Not only did they both probably keep me up a bit later than I would have liked, but they I think they made my stomach hurt. BOO. 🙁
- Eliminating alcohol – I don’t really drink alcohol anymore on account of the breastfeeding, but I did have a glass of wine a couple nights this week. I believe that this also made me feel yucky, which then interferes with a good night’s sleep. So, I think I’ll avoid alcohol altogether for awhile.
- Adding in exercise – Because I hurt my back recently, I’ve stopped any form of exercise. And to be honest, I’m scared to even stretch for fear of repeating this last injury. My back is still not 100%, but I have more range of motion and feel the need to start doing something to check in with my body. I know that by incorporating exercise into my day I will be able to maintain my energy AND experience deeper sleep.
in conclusion…
Even though I only had a short time alone each morning this week, I could definitely feel the positives. I was in a better mood, and had more energy and patience while getting the kids ready for school. And I felt accomplished.
In a nutshell, the extra time allowed me to refill my cup. And that’s worth way more to me than sleeping in.
<3 Laura
