Why waking up at 5am hasn't sucked lately

My husband has been encouraging me to get up when he gets up to get my housework done before Lily gets up. "Then you'll have your whole day to do fun stuff, you'll be able to spend time with Lily. Plus, it's not like you're able to sleep anyway." True dat, yo! (Robbie taught me that.)

What typically happens at 5am is Robbie's evil stupid annoying bane of my existence alarms start going off every 2-3 minutes. Yes. Alarms. He has an old fashioned wind up ringy-dingy one. It's LOUD. Although he hasn't wound it up the past few days. He sets several alarms on his cell phone that each takes their turn going off in between each other. Thus what is ordinarily a 7-9 minute snooze on most alarms clocks turns into a 2-3 minute snooze with these multiple alarms set. GRRRR!!!! What I usually would try to do (when I wasn't running that morning) is sleep. Sleep until Lily would wake up. I would take every opportunity to sleep. However, that would leave me spending most days cleaning during Lily's nap time. That's why Robbie would say, "You can clean during that time when you can't sleep anyway, and then you could take a nap when Lily takes a nap." I would say, "Well, if YOU wouldn't snooze for an HOUR...." Ugh.

I thought about his proposal for awhile, and then I just decided, "Why not give this a shot this week?" since I was planning on starting the Couch to 5K program over again. The only time I can run during the week is early in the mornings while Robbie is still here. I figured since I was up anyway, and exercise wakes me up, I may as well clean after he leaves at 7am until I am either done or Lily wakes up. I have been following flylady for awhile now, so I really don't have all that much to do in the mornings to maintain our home. Plus I have been really doing a good job keeping up with the dishes this week or so. I noticed my father in law and his wife doing dishes together at the end of the day while we visited them during the holiday and I thought, "Yeah, I should be doing that. That's what real people do." Sometimes I feel like a rebellious teenager about this dishes sometimes. I keep up with them pretty well, but I'm not super awesome like those people who put the dish in the dishwasher as soon as they are done with it. Or those awesome people who clean up the breakfast dishes after, gasp, breakfast.

He says this week I have been giddy and "cool as a cucumber." I haven't really noticed a difference in the way I act, but I do feel more relaxed. I still hate getting up in the mornings. Hate it. I mean, why does it have to feel so unpleasant? But it really has been nice. Even that day that Lily kept my up from 2:55 am until 4:30 am.

So my schedule has been roughly this:

5am-alarms go off
6am-I finally tear my behind out of bed and go run or do pilates
7am-kiss Robbie good-bye and tidy up, say my prayers, read my scriptures, take a shower, AND blow dry my hair and apply makeup. What???? Makeup? Yes! I added that one today. I'm so proud!
9am-9:30am-Lily wakes up
9:30am-get Lily dressed and have breakfast
10am-play with Lily, play with Lily more, read a book and drink hot chocolate when Lily feels like playing by herself, play on my phone, play on the computer, etc.
12:30pm-Lunch
1pm-nap
3pm-play with Lily, same as above, maybe put dinner in the slow cooker
6pm- Robbie gets home, I start dinner
7:30pm-we sit down do dinner
8:00pm-get Lily ready for bed
8:30pm-Lily goes to bed, I do dishes and Robbie tidies the living room
9pm-hang out with Robbie until we feel tired and ready for bed

Now this is working so well and I am feeling so good because Lily is finally, for the past several weeks, sleeping through the night. And before she only had on night wake-up. She also isn't nursing as much. She's growing up. I am finally starting to feel human again, and this is why. I can do things like this. Not so long ago I felt like I was in a fog all the time and all I could think about was the next time I could go to sleep. Oh, and taking a multi-vitamin has seemed to give me more energy.

And maybe all this will change when I have to teach flute lessons again next week, though it shouldn't. Also, my evening schedule will have to go on without me when I have any kind of prenatal appointments or if I have to attend a birth. But once I have recovered from the birth, I can just get back into my routine.

I think Robbie is excited because I can say, "You were right, babe. This was a good idea. Brilliant, in fact. The best!"
Looooooove yoooou.