Alarmed and dangerous

I realized as I went to bed last night that I haven't used an alarm clock in MONTHS. Wow. Pretty awesome, huh? Its not like I'm loling about in bed all morning, or even sleeping in, but it is pretty nice to not have that buzzer in my ear, jarring me out of a deep sleep too soon.

I don't know if this is a common ability, but if I look at the clock before bed, tell myself a wake-up time and repeat it a few times, 9 times out of 10, I will wake up at that time. So on days when I want to get a shower in before the kids are awake, I "program" my brain for 6:30 a.m. and walla. If I'm heading right to the gym, or feeling lazy, I'll just sleep till the kids get up, which is generally around 7 a.m. Much better to wake up to the pitter-patter of 3 year old-feet as Big A approaches my side of the bed and inevitably says "Mommy, I have to pee" than to wake up to the relentless beep, beep, beep of the alarm clock.

As a working mama, I woke up at 5:45 a.m. and hit the ground running. From the second I got out of bed, until I sat down at my cube at 8:30 (okay, so maybe it was more like 8:40 most days...), I didn't stop. I'd rush to get myself ready, get both girls ready, drive them to daycare and then race back in the other direction to work. By the time I got to my desk, I was often ready to head back to bed. I made do with the coffee machine (and I really do miss the nifty Keurig machine at work).

Now, 3 mornings a week, I have to drop Big A at preschool at 9 a.m. There's a little rushing around as I still have to get three people dressed and fed, but its decidedly more relaxed than before. On the other 2 days, its even better, as I usually aim to make plans starting around 10 a.m. or so. This gives us time to relax and take our time, a total luxury to a working parent.

Some of you may be wondering about where the husband fits into the alarm clock equation. Heh. J is NOT a morning person, so he usually gets up around 7 when the girls wake up. If he has an early meeting, he'll set his cell phone since the alarm is on my side of the bed. Our whole house is getting more sleep these days.

Last night was a perfect example of why staying home is such a great thing with young kids. Little A woke up crying around 3 a.m. and nothing could get her to settle down except to bring her into our bed. I know, a rookie mistake, but its hard to think clearly at 3 a.m. She insisted on sleeping nose to nose with me. I really find it hard to sleep with someone "looking" at me (as my big sister can attest to), so I kept trying to turn around after she fell asleep. The second I did, she would haul herself up, lean over me and scream "Mama, mama?" in my face. I finally gave in and smushed my face into hers, and we slept fitfully. The stars aligned and Big A didn't come in to wake us up till 7:30. If I was working and the alarm had gone off at 5:45, I would NOT have been a very happy camper. I'm kind of a...well, let's just say lack of sleep makes me moody (as do a lot of things). Little A didn't sleep through the night for a full year, so believe me when I say I am quite familiar with sleep deprivation and its not fun.

I snapped this pic of Big A and J a couple years ago...our kids do love our bed.

When it comes to sleep, I have to put the check in the stay at home mom column. Working on little sleep IS harder than being home on little sleep. After all, when was the last time your boss told you it was okay to lay on the couch during a conference call, or take a quick catnap under your desk? My current bosses don't seem to mind if I'm not quite on top of my game. Now if only I could somehow pilfer the Keurig, things would be even better...