New Mom Chronicles: Waking Up Before Your Child
If you’re already a morning person, this blog post is not for you. You go on with your bad self and keep doing your thing.
If you’re like me, and you’re NOT a morning person, you may keep reading…
First, I’d like to state the obvious: I’m still amazed when I think back pre-baby, and I wonder just how on earth I thought I had so little time. Because every free minute now is so precious, and so few and far between.
I don’t know if this is normal for an 18-month-old or not, but my son usually naps for about 3 hours everyday. But it’s up to me whether I make that time productive or not. It’s very easy to choose to nap myself, or browse Facebook or watch Netflix, or do housework instead of working toward my actual goals.
And once he goes to bed for the night, I’m just too freakin’ tired and ready to go to bed myself. If I can’t think straight, what’s the point of working on anything important, right?
So literally all of 2018, I’ve had a goal to wake up at least an hour earlier, whether it’s before work during the week or before I expect my son to wake up on the weekend…
It happened once in October, and I think once in November. Go me.
However, I’ve recently decided that I’ve got some pretty big, solid goals for 2019. I NEED to accomplish them, and I WILL accomplish them. And since naptime isn’t always a guarantee (as far as being able to be productive), and I just cannot stay motivated after he goes to bed, I’ve decided early morning is it if I’m going to make these goals happen.
How do we as moms make this a reality when we’re not morning people? Unfortunately there’s no magic answer.
I will say, personally, once I’m up, I really do enjoy the peace and quiet of the early mornings. It’s getting out of bed that sucks. And despite my usually positive demeanor, my inner voice when I first wake up that early is pretty damn negative!
Inner voice: “This sucks. Screw it, I’m sleeping more.”
Me: “Come on, just get up.”
Inner voice: “But I’m so tired! And the bed is so cozy!”
Me: “Please?”
Inner voice: “There’s nothing pressing that I need to do that I can’t do during Teddy’s nap later.” (Even if I’ve made a list the night before and know exactly what I want to work on.)
Me: “Fine.” Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Then when I finally get up, and realize how little extra free time I now have, I’m irritated with myself for not getting up, because there was plenty I could’ve done. Even if it was just to have a cup of coffee, pray, meditate, and review my to-do list and maybe cross off something small, I would’ve felt accomplished and better ready for the day.
And now I’m just annoyed and I have no time to do anything.
I’m not usually driven by negative reinforcement, and I don’t recommend it, BUT for me, sometimes just knowing what I WOULD’VE gotten done can motivate me to follow through the next day.
But clearly not always, since I’ve been trying all freaking year.
But again, as 2019 approaches, my goals have me pretty motivated already. I encourage you to use your goals to help drive you out of bed when you want to get up. I know you’re tired, mama–I am, too. But think about how BADLY you want your goals. If you want them badly enough, you’ll get up.
Again, while there’s no magic button, let’s make getting up as easy as possible. Here are a few tips:
- Set yourself up for the best sleep possible!
Keep your room dark. Use room-darkening shades if possible, and/or a sleep mask. If you don’t already do this, you’ll be amazed at how much the darkness helps. Cover up any electronics that emit light, however small.
Don’t browse your phone while in bed. I’m terrible at this, and I know I need to get better–I prop up my iPad and let a show I already know well run in the background. *slaps own hand* The light and the slight electromagnetic field will totally disrupt your brain’s sleep functions.
Try running a diffuser or putting essential oils on the bottom of your feet, specifically lavender on your left big toe. (Get your own here!)
- Choose the right alarm tone!
I use an app called Sleep Cycle. It has many different tones to choose from, or you can use music from your phone. I use one of their tones because I don’t want to ruin a favorite song by associating it with my alarm!
It also starts quietly and slowly gets louder. Whatever kind of alarm you use, please do not choose anything that startles you awake, like the irritating beeping alarm that we all know. Your alarm shouldn’t give you a heart attack.
I’m not trying to sell you on this app, but the other things I like about it are it graphs your sleep pattern during the night and rates how well you slept, and you can also either have it go off at a certain time or follow its recommendation to set a window of 30 minutes. In that window, it will only wake you when you’re in your lightest point of sleep, making it easier to wake up.
I’ve never tried them, but some people also like the alarms that roll off the nightstand and require you to chase them to turn them off–just make sure they don’t sound like a banshee! If it’s going to make you mad, don’t use it to wake you up! Don’t start your day mad.
There are also alarms that wake you up with slowly-increasing light, which can be helpful when you’re in a darkened room. I might try that feature on my app tonight and see how it goes…
- Prep as much as you can the night before
Set up the coffee maker and set out your mug, teaspoon, or anything else you can set out ahead of time. I do this not just to make things easy, but so I make as little noise as possible.
Set out whatever you’re going to work on, whether that’s your laptop, a notebook, the book you’re going to read. Have your earbuds/headphones ready if you’re going to listen to a podcast or watch a motivational video.
Even if you’re dog tired before bed, it’s worth it to take the 5-10 minutes that your prep requires. The easier it is to just sit down and get to work in the morning, the better you’ll feel when it’s time to get up.
- But if you really need to sleep, SLEEP!
Listen, mama. Listen to your body. If you had a long night, or you’re sick, or just generally run down, choose sleep. Your body NEEDS sleep to function normally. I am not about sacrificing sleep when it comes down to it. Make sure you’re getting at least 6-7 hours, 8 if possible. You don’t necessarily need to get up 2 hours or even 1 full hour earlier. Sometimes even just a half hour or 15 minutes is enough, as long as you’re happy with it and you’re not trying to run on 3-4 hours of sleep all the time on purpose.
That being said, if you are a BRAND NEW mom, and/or your baby is still waking up at all hours of the night and disrupting your sleep, please do not feel inclined to try to wake up earlier than your baby. You need to take care of you first so that you can take care of your beautiful baby.
But if you’re like, “But I got goals too!!” then I urge you to work as best you can within the limitations you’ve been given. Make naptimes your non-negotiable “you” time to get s*** done. But if you really need a nap during naptime, take a damn nap. You deserve it, and if your body is asking for it, you need it.
I hope these tips help you! Bring it on, 2019!!
Do you have any tips of tricks for becoming a morning person? Feel free to share them in the comments!
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