Zero to Sixty

The world is clearly divided amongst two groups of people... morning people, and not morning people. I fall solidly into the latter category; this has proven to be problematic for me as a parent. Especially, since my 4-year-old daughter has yet to sleep through the night. She goes to bed fine, but inevitably wakes up several times throughout the night. I don't think that she has EVER gone to bed at 7:00 P.M. and slept through until 6:00 A.M. Obviously, when she wakes up, she finds it necessary to wake me up and usually her Daddy too. To add insult to injury, she is also a morning person! During the early years, our son was not a great sleeper either, so we're going on almost 7 years of sleep deprivation. And it's starting to add up!

Generally, my daughter opens her eyes and immediately hits the ground running! There is no easing into the day, no gentle transition from sleepiness to wakefulness; upon waking my daughter zooms from zero to sixty and expects everyone else to do the same. Usually it goes something like this... She sits up and immediately starts a conversation. Often there is a lot of poking involved and usually the shades are being opened and occasionally the lights get turned on. Once she's gotten my attention, she runs down a long list of demands, usually involving breakfast and cartoons. My daughter is awesome and adorable, but none of this amuses me!

I need to gradually approach the day. I need to lie in bed and ponder getting up, before any real action is taken. This has been my approach for most of my life. I remember my Mom repeatedly coming into my room to wake me up for high school. I would regularly bargain for 30 more seconds! It sounds completely ridiculous, but if I need an extra 30 seconds, I need an extra 30 seconds! I tell my kids this, but they just don't get it! Most mornings I feel like that familiar teenager begging for more sleep. I get ornery, obstinate, and completely irrational, but this is why my sleep must be protected.

My son, like me, is not a morning person; thank goodness! However, he does wake up grouchy and ravenous! The grouchiness I can handle, but the intense hunger requires immediate action from me. The hardest part is that I know he's starving in the morning, because he's such a poor eater for most of the day. Breakfast is the only meal he consistently eats, so I feel obligated to fill the hole in his stomach sooner rather than later. I do my best to get a few extra minutes, but it's challenging to actually sleep when you have someone screaming from the next room about how they can't go on another moment without sustenance!

My husband, bless his heart, wakes up just like my daughter. He's chatty and raring to go! Unfortunately, he leaves for work, just moments before my daughter wakes up. On the occasional morning that he doesn't have to work, they are a perfect team! They have conversations in full swing from the get-go, music playing, errands to run; it's crazy! On these mornings, I lay in bed with two emotions. The first is an intense gratitude that he is giving her everything she needs and having a marvelous time in the process. The second emotion is complete and utter confusion that anyone actually wakes up with that much vim and vinegar!

Morning people... what a mystery!