Early Birds
My sweet little family of three has gone from being night owls to early birds. All three of our natural clocks have us up late and sleeping late. And maybe napping too. Kara's sleep schedule always had her sleeping in until 9:30. From a tiny baby up until school age. (Actually, when she was REALLY tiny she would finally fall asleep for the night at 1:30am and would sleep until 1:30pm!) And Michael has always liked staying up late.
Unfortunately, Michael's work has a very large parking lot that fills up quickly, so if he's not at work by, say 7am, he's walking A LONG way into work. Recently he switched buildings and it's not so necessary to be in that early, but he's finding he can get a lot of hours in and still be home early enough to hang out with Kara for a while (he's usually home by 5). He actually is at work by 6am (extra hours = extra $$$). His alarm wakes him up at 5am, so he's in bed by 9:00 or 9:30. He's turned into and early bird.
The reality of school finally hit us as Kara is in kindergarten now. Her bus picks her up at 7:40, so she has to be at the bus stop super early. Her little alarm clock wakes her up at 6:45 so she has time for one whole cartoon while she wakes up, time to get dressed, eat breakfast, feed her fish, make her bed, brush her teeth, and get her hair done. I listed them all because it takes a 5 year old a long time to do everything, so getting all of that done in only an hour is pretty awesome. Getting up that early for a girl who's internal clock naturally wakes her at 9:30 is pretty tough and actually took like TWO MONTHS to get used to. She's always so tired that she asked for an earlier bed time! 7 is when she goes to bed, even though she falls asleep closer to 8. Poor little thing. She's turned into an early bird too.
I am blessed to not have to go to school or work, so my schedule is flexible. Back when Kara would sleep in until 9:30, I would too. Which means I could stay up until 1:30am and still get 8 hours of sleep. I used to put Michael and Kara to bed and workout around 10pm. Then I'd do a ton of chores and enjoy having the quiet, dark house all to myself. I come alive at 10pm. Well, all that has changed. Now my body is getting up between 6 and 6:45 every day with my girl. Wow, this 31 year old can't handle it like I used to. I need at least 8 hours of sleep, but 9 is preferred. So, I go to sleep with Michael at 9:30! I think I'm turning into an early bird too.
Our evening schedule looks like this: dinner at 4:30 (since we eat breakfast so early, lunch moves back and so does dinner), bath at 6, pjs at 6:30 (for me too!), Kara to bed at 7, us bed at 9:30. It's working really well!
Unfortunately, Michael's work has a very large parking lot that fills up quickly, so if he's not at work by, say 7am, he's walking A LONG way into work. Recently he switched buildings and it's not so necessary to be in that early, but he's finding he can get a lot of hours in and still be home early enough to hang out with Kara for a while (he's usually home by 5). He actually is at work by 6am (extra hours = extra $$$). His alarm wakes him up at 5am, so he's in bed by 9:00 or 9:30. He's turned into and early bird.
The reality of school finally hit us as Kara is in kindergarten now. Her bus picks her up at 7:40, so she has to be at the bus stop super early. Her little alarm clock wakes her up at 6:45 so she has time for one whole cartoon while she wakes up, time to get dressed, eat breakfast, feed her fish, make her bed, brush her teeth, and get her hair done. I listed them all because it takes a 5 year old a long time to do everything, so getting all of that done in only an hour is pretty awesome. Getting up that early for a girl who's internal clock naturally wakes her at 9:30 is pretty tough and actually took like TWO MONTHS to get used to. She's always so tired that she asked for an earlier bed time! 7 is when she goes to bed, even though she falls asleep closer to 8. Poor little thing. She's turned into an early bird too.
I am blessed to not have to go to school or work, so my schedule is flexible. Back when Kara would sleep in until 9:30, I would too. Which means I could stay up until 1:30am and still get 8 hours of sleep. I used to put Michael and Kara to bed and workout around 10pm. Then I'd do a ton of chores and enjoy having the quiet, dark house all to myself. I come alive at 10pm. Well, all that has changed. Now my body is getting up between 6 and 6:45 every day with my girl. Wow, this 31 year old can't handle it like I used to. I need at least 8 hours of sleep, but 9 is preferred. So, I go to sleep with Michael at 9:30! I think I'm turning into an early bird too.
Our evening schedule looks like this: dinner at 4:30 (since we eat breakfast so early, lunch moves back and so does dinner), bath at 6, pjs at 6:30 (for me too!), Kara to bed at 7, us bed at 9:30. It's working really well!
Comments
Stephanie, you're kidding me? An hour and a half? Wow, it must be a girl thing. And I think it's time she gets an alarm clock so you can sleep until 6:30 with the boys! Lol!