Day. . .um, I have lost track

I have no idea what day I am on. Here is what I do know. I still don't like to get up early. It still hurts, especially since it is so dang dark. I do, however, like to be awake earlier in the day and I have found that this benefits everyone. I will continue to wake up at 6:00 am on weekdays, but I really don't want to get up that early on the weekend. My goal for the weekend is 7:30 am, or maybe 8:00. Really I just don't want to sleep my day away. Bedtime is still fluctuating quite a bit, but hopefully that will get under control soon. So there you have it. I conclude that it is possible to make getting up early a bit easier, but I don't think it will ever be easy for me and that is just something that I will just have to continue to work on throughout my life. My hope is that in several years when it is time for my kids to start going to seminary, that waking up at that horrible hour won't kill me. Now, perhaps a nap is in order? But of course not until I fold laundry (Mom).

Day Nineteen

So. Very. Tired. I need to go to bed before 11:00 pm. I need to find a way to sleep all night. I need to find a way to stop crashing every afternoon around 3:00. And I need my head to stop hurting. But, on a positive note, I woke up at 6:00 this morning! It was really hard and I really didn't want to get up, but I did. And then I showered (huge accomplishment). I even managed to get everyone out the door in time (another huge accomplishment since I had taken a shower and I am not known for my speediness in the personal prep department).

On another note, my dear friend moves away this weekend and although my heart is cold and hard due to all of the friends that have moved away over the years, I am sad. I shall now try to organize my kitchen.

Day Sixteen

A quick rundown of the weekend: On Saturday, I felt myself come out of sleep, but it was still dark out and so I rolled over. Then I started thinking. I wondered what time it was and so I looked at the clock. Low and behold, it was 6:20 am. Wow. I naturally woke up at 6:20. So, what did I do to celebrate? I rolled over and went back to sleep of course. But only until 7:30. It was, afterall, Saturday. On Sunday I didn't set my alarm because I wanted to see if the same thing would happen. It didn't, but I did wake up at 7:30 am. I am really liking 7:30 am. If only that time would work for me during the week. Well today, day sixteen, I woke up at my new weekday time of 6:15. It was hard. I had a long night and my head hurts. Today is going to be a very long day, especially if this headache continues at its current intensity. All that aside, I am starting to enjoy being awake earlier. I still really, really dislike actually getting up, but I am seeing the benefits. I think I shall continue.

Day Thirteen

All I can say is that if the kids didn't have school today, there is no way on earth that I would have gotten up this morning. I have been a very bad girl lately and have been going to bed way too late. But, on a positive note, I have gotten up at 6:15 for the last three mornings. This has made a huge difference in my attitude when I have gone in to wake up the kids. I have to wake them up at 6:30 and it is very hard for me to be nice when waking them up when I am not quite awake myself. Plus, by waking up a bit earlier I am more ready to make their breakfast and lunches.

P.S. KK is a lot like me in that even if she goes to bed early, she still wants to sleep in. She is also a lot like Doug in that she is impossible to wake up in the morning. This is going to be another long year for this poor girl.

Day Eleven

Tiger: Mom, do I like peanut butter?
Me: No, peanut butter makes you sick.
Tiger: Yes, peanut butter makes me sick and chocolate makes me better. Mmmm, chocolate is so yummy and delicious. . .and spicy. It's spicy and it makes me better.


Today I feel as if a black cloud has been lifted from me. Oh yes, school started today. I didn't realize how incredibly ready I was to send the kids back to school. Now only one more week and then Tiger will start school as well. I almost feel like I can breathe again.

Yesterday I totally didn't try to wake up early at all because it was the last day of summer break, but lucky (??) for me Tiger decided to wake up at 7:30 and so that got me going a bit. Today however, I set my alarm for 6:15 and, . . . wait for it . . . I got up, and I stayed up (and it's even darker at 6:15 than it is at 6:30). Ok, granted I had to get the kids up at 6:30, but still, I consider the fact that I got up a little bit early a huge success. Especially considering the fact that I didn't go to bed until 1:00 am. To shake things up a bit, this morning I tried turning the light on as soon as I woke up and it made a huge difference (for those of you concerned for my other half, that man can sleep through anything). Now I just have to figure out some way to have the lights come on automatically when my alarm goes off. That would be an immense help in my waking up efforts.

Oh, and today is Sparky's birthday. My boy has hit the double digits!

Day Nine

I am just going to skip days 7 & 8 because they were utter failures. Moving on to today: Success. I awoke at 6:35 (because it took me 5 minutes to hear my alarm) and stayed awake. I'm not going to lie. It hurt and every part of me was begging to roll over and just go back to sleep. But I didn't, even though it was cloudy and dark in my room, even though it was nice and cool and I was warm and snugly. Nope, I stayed awake. Now the question is, will waking up early become easy? Can it become a habit for me? Can I even do this tomorrow, on my last day of summer vacation? For those are the true tests of this experiment.

Day Six - I am a lightweight

I haven't been sleeping and so occasionally I try taking Unisom, Tylenol PM, or most recently Melatonin. These are great. They help me turn my brain off so that I can fall asleep, but most importantly when I wake up during the night for whatever reason, they help me actually fall back asleep. The problem is that they stay in my system forever and make it extremely hard to wake up in the morning which is why I don't take them very often. I am a serious lightweight when it comes to sedatives. In fact, a dose of Benedryl knocked me out right after I gave birth to Tiger and anesthesia works amazingly well for me. Anyway, I have taken Melatonin quite a few times this week and I tell you, it is making it really hard for me to wake up in the morning. I don't think I would be up right now if it weren't for the fact that Tiger woke up early. So, I think that if I am going to be able to succeed in Operation Wake Up Early, I will have to stop taking my little happy pills. The whole point of this is to get my body into a better and healthier sleeping pattern anyway. So here's to optimism (raise glass and . . . clink).

Day Five

I really need to go to bed earlier. That is a huge downfall for me in this whole trying to wake up early thing. Today I have to say that although my eyes were technically open around 6:50 this morning, I didn't technically get out of bed until around 8:15. I just didn't want to. I really just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. It is just so hard to convince myself to get out of bed when I don't think I really fell into a decent sleep until around 4:00 am and nobody else is in the house is up early either. Perhaps I should try to enlist Doug into this little experiment of mine? Hmmmm . . . Somehow I don't think he is going to go for it. I have to say though, that on the mornings this week that I have been awake earlier, it has been much easier to get out of the house at a somewhat decent time. That is an aspect of this that I definitely like.

Day Four

8:15, not good! But in my defense, I was up during the night with a coughing girl, it is cloudy outside, my room is nice and cool, my bed is snugly, the kids are still asleep, and I am so very weak. Tomorrow - NO excuses!

On a side note, do kids really need birthday parties? Sparky's birthday is next week and I promised him a party this year but I am completely unmotivated and have no desire of putting one together. I have to say that his birth date really was not planned very well and is quite inconvenient. Sigh. Don't worry, some sort of party will happen. I am not that mean of a mom.

Day Three

Um, have I mentioned that I don't like to get up early? Today really hurt, but not as much as I imagine it will hurt on Saturday. I actually didn't get up until 6:50 but really I consider that a success because I think that, for the first time in awhile, I actually got some sleep last night. My mom suggested that I take Melatonin for my insomnia and my sister also swears by it so last night I gave it a try and it worked quite well. I just may become a fan. Hopefully since I got some sleep last night I won't have such a bad headache today. So, in a nut shell, today it was still hard to get up, but I am determined to make it easier. . .somehow.

Day Two

Better. I didn't immediately turn my alarm off and I didn't completely go back to sleep. I did doze for a good 15 more minutes until I peeled myself out of bed, but it hurt and went against all of my natural instincts. Things that helped get me out of bed: Sunshine! A sick and coughing girl. Tiger moaning while he tries to stay asleep, but having a hard time because he is still getting used to the new room he now shares with Sparky and it is a lot brighter in the morning than his old room. Things that made me want to crawl back into my snugly covers: Insomnia. I am not a fan of this little insomniac phase that I seem to be having right now. Last night was particularly bad and I am not sure I ever fell asleep. I also don't know what to do with myself this early and so there isn't any motivation for me to get up. I need to start having a plan or some sort of goal to accomplish once I get up. Sure, I could work out, but I am not mentally there yet. I could read, but that will just put me back to sleep. There is always laundry to fold . . .hmmm, we'll save that as a last resort. Goal tonight: Go to sleep on time and actually sleep.

Day One of Operation Early Rise

FAILED. Miserably. Apparently I turned the alarm off in my sleep because I woke up to Tyler crying at 7:45 am. I remember having a dream that I was going to just turn off my alarm and then go back to sleep, well apparently it wasn't a dream. But who knows? I also had a dream that my niece was running around half naked in my house wearing KK's I Love Lucy t-shirt. Sometimes you just can't tell dreams from reality. I also went to bed really late last night which doesn't help at all. Going to bed early is going to be key and so I will just have to try again tonight. You see yesterday we went down to Cincinnati to hang with my cousins and we were just having so much fun (Thanks guys!) that we left later than we should have which meant we got home late which meant I got to bed late, but it was totally worth it. So, to wrap up, today was an early to rise failure but tomorrow I will succeed.

A daring and bold move on my part

They say that early to bed and early to rise will make a man healthy and wealthy and wise. I have always been more of a fan of kind of late to bed and then sleep in for a while and then around 10:00 I am good to go. Really, if I could just sleep in until at least 8:00 every day that would be just perfect. Alas, I know that is not an option when school starts in a couple of weeks and I am dreading it. They also say that staying consistent in the time you go to bed and the time that you wake up in the morning is key. Since I absolutely love to sleep in and I love, love, love to be in bed, this is not a practice that I follow. I may have to get up early during the week when the kids are in school, but you better believe that when the weekend comes I am sleeping in as long as possible. The problem is that I have thoroughly been enjoying my sleeping in a bit too much this summer and absolutely nothing is getting done and my house is a mess. So, here's the daring move I am about to make. Bum, bum, bum . . . starting on Sunday (a usually beloved sleep-in day) I will be waking up at 6:30 am and going to bed by 10:00 pm every day for an entire month (I thought about 6:00 am, but that just seemed a little too painful). I will test out the theory of consistency and see if it rings true. I will also be giving up a good week and a half of precious sleep-in days. I will then document my thoughts and feelings on the subject which you will all have the pleasure of reading. I have a feeling it will be very painful, but maybe my laundry will actually get folded. Hmm, so many possibilities. Wish me luck because I think I am going to need it.