For the last two weeks Dirk has continuously woken up at 4AM- happy as a clam, mind you. Now I don’t know about you-but that’s a tad early. If the sun was up-that would be a whole-nother story. But it is not. Not for another hour. So after days of not enough sleep.
BAM.
An idea slammed straight into my face. What if we push back bedtime? DUH. That makes total sense.
Usually Dirk would get uber cranky right around 6:30PM. We would head upstairs for bath and the bedtime routine and lights would be out by 8PM. Now we implement a family walk every night.
NOTE: This is the only time it is actually safe for us to be outside right now. Yes, it is that hot.
So after the sun goes down behind the trees around 7PM we hit the road, swing on some swings at the park and relax as a family. Mom- thanks for the gel necklace for Dirk- keeps him nice and cool each night! Usually I eat my weight in protein on these walks, stupid bugs. Yep, that’s me-the one hacking up a lung because I engulfed a whole cloud of gnats. Lovely.
Dirk cracks up at that. Can’t blame him. When Gabe does. I can. : ) .
Needless to say, bath now is pushed back to 8PM(at the earliest) and because of the walk he is a happy little camper. Lights are out around 9PM every night now, which gives me much less time to clean, and get ready for the next day- but really, anything to prevent 4AM is okay in my books.
Dirk now wakes up around 8AM- sometimes if I’m lucky- 9AM. Which means I get to get ready for the day, have a cup of coffee, and some breakfast. Breakfast makes the day that much better. If I try to eat when Dirk is eating he won’t budge until he has a bite of what I’m having… and sometimes that just doesn’t work, depending on what I’m eating- i.e. yogurt, bran flakes, coffee.
It’s interesting to look back at the various bedtimes we’ve instated for Dirk. They have definitely helped with his and our energy levels to have a sense of normalcy every day. When he was a newborn he was up every 2.5 hours- on the dot. Yikes. Then four hour stretches… then sleeping through the night 4 months in… then the dreaded helmet and back to waking up every three hours…. then sleeping through the night… and then 4AM-HELLO EARLY BIRD- now sleeping through the night and actually waking up at a respectable time. Thank you-thank you -thank you baby boy.
