Mornings…
Since my last beautiful baby was born, I have struggled with mornings. I like to get up before the kids, but it has been SO hard lately.
I am still up with Little Miss quite a few times throughout the night. So I sleep whenever I can. The problem is, when I stay in bed until everyone else wakes up, I feel extremely frazzled. Loud voices and hungry children are a shock to the system! A little quiet time before they rise is so. much. better.
Kat at Inspired to Action has written a free e-book called Maximize Your Mornings. It is great. Not only does she encourage you to get up early and tell you why it is good to do so, she actually includes practical tips for getting out of bed! I highly recommend this book!
Michelle from So, I Married a Mennonite is hosting a book study of Maximize Your Mornings. Anyone who wants to join in can do so. I love working on tough stuff along with others, so I am there. I’d love it if you would join me.
Here are a few details from my current morning situation:
My biggest obstacles
The baby is sleeping our bedroom.
I have thought and thought about putting her in with one of the other kids, but it just doesn’t seem feasible right now. She seems to hear everything, so slipping out of the room without waking her is difficult. I got her up this morning and did my quiet time with her sitting by me. It worked out just fine today, but I would like a little alone time some days. If anyone has had experience sharing a room with a baby, I’d love to hear your tips!
After a while she was getting a little noisy, and because I didn’t want the others to wake up, we sat outside on the back steps for prayer time. It was so nice to get fresh air first thing! It was also special for me to be out there with her alone. We don’t get to do that too often and she is growing up so fast! I love that girl.
Exercising without waking up the other kids!
I like to do exercise videos. The problem is that the kids are still sleeping and their rooms are very close to the T.V. I am considering just going ahead and telling them to stay in their rooms until I’m finished. Perhaps I should find a walking buddy and go out of the house. Hmm.
Getting to bed before tomorrow begins!
When all is quiet, I want to stay up and do things: cook, clean, blog, watch a movie, talk to my husband, read…. There is not much for this but to just be disciplined and go to bed. I’d like to shoot for 10:30pm.
Michelle asked us what time we are setting our alarm for this week. And I am having a hard time deciding! I don’t want to wake the baby. I think I’ll get up with her at 7am and have the others come for breakfast at 8am.
I’d like to gradually get up earlier until I’m getting up at 5:30 or 6 am. I’m not sure if that is possible to do in this house without waking up everyone else. We will see how things go.
Thanks Kat and Michelle for motivating and helping us along!
Thank you for visiting! I see that you are on the opposite end of the child raising years from me. I don’t have to worry about waking my son up. I have found that teenage boys can sleep through anything. I wish I had started “maximizing my mornings” when my son was little. It would have made the middle school years a lot more pleasant. Good luck!
Hi there! I’m doing MYM as well.
I don’t have any tips for you on having the baby in the room with you – sorry! I have a 17month old who sleeps in his own room.
As for the waking the older children with the exercise video…would it possible to do the video without the sound on? Just use the visual as a guide? OR you could turn the volume down super low. Or, if there is another adult in your home in the mornings, you could put the awake baby in a stroller and go for a walk. Just some ideas 🙂
Right now my exercise portion of the routine is the most difficult for me. I’m just trying to get myself to do 10 minutes of something first thing (it’s sad how hard that is for me). I just do some generic things (crunches, push ups, squats, etc) for about 7 or 8 minutes, then finish up with a few minutes of 3lb arm weights. It’s not exciting, but it’s quiet!
Thanks for taking the time to comment! I like the idea of having the sound down, and it works pretty well for lifting weights. Juts not great for crazy cardio workouts.
10 minutes is a great first goal. It will get easier. And you will be happy for having put in the effort.
Hello! 🙂 I am doing the MYM challenge as well. I have 2 girls, and the littlest one (11 months) likes to wake up anywhere between 5:30 and 8:30. It makes it difficult to have any consistent time in the morning so I know what you’re going through. Wish I had some great advice to share that would help…..
I admire you for doing this even though your little one is still waking in the middle of the night. Just keep at it though and the Lord will bless you for it. (Psalm 37:4)
Saying a prayer for you!
so I am an absolutely positively anti morning person. I have 5 children and 4 of them attend the private Christian school where we worship. We moved to be close to the church/school. Anyway, I was getting up bright and early, getting them all out the door and then snuggling back into bed with my 2 year old while she watches Barney. Of course I would fall back asleep and the morning was gone and it was time to get my 5 year old from half day.
You guys have encouraged me to changed that one habit of going back to bed. Coffee on the couch makes me so much more productive. I love getting a chunk of work done before my five year old comes home. thanks guys
I hear you. Snuggling back in bed is just so comfortable!
Glad you are encouraged. We are all working on it with you 🙂 Keep us posted.
My trick for getting up early and not waking the kids has been to put a fan in their rooms. It’s quiet buzzing covers over my noise and I can have a couple of hours to myself while they sleep blissfully on. I’ve done this for 13 years now, and I don’t know what I would do without those fans! If you don’t want them running all night, just sneak in around 5:00 and turn them/it on.