Tuesday, March 10, 2009

keepin’ hope alive

  1. I have never been a morning person.
  2. I love my bed.

There have been many times in my life when I have had to wake up early, like in highschool when I had early morning Seminary (scripture study), in college when I had an 8:00 am class, or when waking up at 5:00 am was the only way I was going to be able to fit in my workout that day.  Now I have to wake up early so that we can all have breakfast together, read scriptures as a family, and then get Kendall and Berkeley to school on time.  I have never loved waking up early (as clarification, early to me means before about 8:00 am), but unfortunately it is just one of those things I’ve had to get used to.  In the days before we became parents, I always knew that I could either sleep in on the weekends or at the very least, sneak in a Sunday afternoon nap, the thought of which helped to get me through all those early mornings.  With kids?  Not so much.  And now that I have a little baby who still wakes up at least two times a night, getting out of bed in the morning is about as bad as it has ever been.

Pretty much every morning, Patrick and I have a conversation that goes something like this:

P:  (while gently shaking my arm) I’m hopping in the shower now and it’s time for you to wake up.

me:  What time is it?

P:  7:00

me:  I feel like my brain is going to fall out.  I can’t get up yet.

P:  You’re a big girl now and you need to help the little girls get ready.

me:  Blast.

The only thing that helps me to get out of bed in the morning is to tell myself this:  After I get back from taking Kendall and Berkeley to school and then put the baby down for her morning nap, I’m going to crawl back into this bed and have a nap too!  Don’t be too jealous.  Usually there are too many other things to get done while Emery is napping (typically, working out and then showering and if it’s an extra long nap I’ll clean the kitchen or fold some laundry as well) so my nap is forgotten and I somehow make it through another sleep-deprived day. I think I’ve taken that nap just twice in 2009.  One of those times happened to be last week, and man oh man, it was sure worth waiting for.  But because I live every day with that hope, I will get out of bed again tomorrow. . .

6 comments:

Molly said...

Oh my. Can I relate. Not. A. Morning. Person. Luckily, our kids are getting big enough that on Saturday morning they can get up and we can stay in bed for a while. And I am lucky enough to have a husband who gets the girls up and feeds them and gets them going. Then I just get up for the finishing touches- hair, backpacks, finding socks. Kudos to you for getting up to work out. I still can't bring myself to do that. It happens later in the day or it doesn't happen. Though with Lincoln's 2 minute commute, I can get up at 7 in the summer, get in a bike ride, and be home in time for him to be at work at 8. Oh summer....

Tracy said...

I am so. with you. I hate getting out of bed and I HATE that early morning is the only time I can get a workout in. I keep thinking it'll get easier, but it just plain doesn't. A couple of days ago, I figured out that in just 5 1/2 years I'll have all my kids in all day school and THEN I'll have time to workout at 8am. Til then it's a perpetual battle to pull myself out of bed in the morning...which is why I'm on my way to the gym right now!

The Dahle Family said...

Mer, I totally trick myself like that. I'm not a morning person, but I'm also not a nap person--once I'm up I'd generally rather just stay up 'til bedtime. But in the morning, my brain is irrational enough to forget that I don't like naps, so I tell myself that I can go back to sleep after I pump or shower or whatever. It really does work.

Mirien said...

The thing about getting up early is that I never regret it. Never do I think, "Boy, I wish I hadn't exercised at 6 this morning." On the other hand, I really regret it when I sleep in--the day just doesn't go as well. And I'm not a morning person either, but I'm trying to reform. If I could just make myself go to bed before midnight it wouldn't be so hard.

Dana said...

Don't tell me your 8 month old still gets up twice at night! I was hoping to only have to keep this up for another month at most. Why don't I remember these things from the first time around?

Audrey said...

Sorry to hear you're still having to wake up twice a night with Emery. Being a big girl is tiring that's for sure.