This experimonth helped me reclaim my alone time without feeling selfish or guilty, which is something I’ve struggled with since becoming a mother. I rediscovered long, solitary early morning runs, without the added weight of pushing a toddler in a jogging stroller. I figured out that I can still bake bread in the summertime without running the central air at full blast, as long as I get the oven fired up before the day’s heat sets in. My gardens are happy because they’re finally being tended to. There was some trial and error: I pulled enough muscles to realize I am an evening yoga person, not a morning yoga person. I left enough dishes/laundry/etc “for the morning” that the novelty of putting off household work quickly wore off. The only downside for me is that I’m both a morning person and a night owl – I haven’t slept more than five hours straight since probably the eighth grade. I had more bleary-eyed mornings in June that I care to admit, but that only made my Sunday sleep-ins all the more enticing – I think I’ve finally learned to appreciate a good night’s rest. Overall, I’m a much happier person for June’s experimonth. I’d have never guessed that such a seemingly small adjustment to my morning schedule would make such a big difference.
I got up at 5am 17 out of 30 days this month.
My most significant realization this month, beyond what I learned about my early morning routines, was that it’s ok to not be a perfectionist. The compromise I arrived at by the end of the month was that as long as I was thinking about it and trying a majority of the time (except for weekends) and not just giving up on it altogether, then what happens happens. It’s ok to let life run its course instead of obsessing about self-imposed rules. This is a lesson I should take forward with me, not just for experimonths, but for diet and exercise, work schedules, etc., etc.
Just because I wasn’t perfect at this experimonth doesn’t mean I failed or gave up, nor does it mean it wasn’t worth trying. And I’m ok with that. 
The month is over. As always with experimonth, I have mixed feelings about how it went. As always with experimonths, I did better in the first half of the month than in the second half. Though, unless specifically planned for, I was always out of bed before 5:30… so it was close.
The Pros to 5:00 am wake ups
- lots more time in the morning to accomplish things
- I learned how to make a better pot of coffee
- sunrises are just as lovely as sunsets
- good breakfasts (and conversation) each morning with hubby
- I can beat your “how early I had to get up” story
- time on the weekends to both do housework AND relax without feeling guilty
- waking up in Italy next week might be a little easier despite the six hour time difference
The Cons to 5:00 am wake ups
- its 5:00 am
- the alarm gets abused a bit more
- stores/restaurants don’t open for another four hours
- evenings seem short because there is a focus on what time I need to get to bed OR because I’ve already fallen asleep
- I contemplate my naps more – how long is appropriate? if I take a nap, will I be tired at bed time? etc.
- though there is more time, I work out less because I don’t have the energy…which leads to more lethargy…
How will this month change my life? Though waking up without an alarm is wonderful, I’ve learned that I really enjoy waking up a bit early at least one weekend day. I see some 6 or 7 am wake-ups in the future. The weekday mornings don’t fare so well. Though I love my husband, I think he’ll have to enjoy breakfast without me from now on and just settle for a drowsy good-bye kiss before he heads out ot work.
One thing that I hope continues past this month is our Saturday mornings. In the future, they may start just a little later in the day, but not much. Typically after the alarm goes off (three times) we get up and head out for a long walk around the neighborhood. Then back home, showering and the like, and if it’s pre-7:00, we treat ourselves to a large breakfast at any one of a few local places. Next it’s off to the funky part of town for either a coffee to go, or a sit-and-talk coffee. Around about 8:00 we mosey down the nearby walking trail about half a mile to the Farmer’s Market where we try as many free samples as possible and pick up our week’s share of produce. By the time we get home it’s usually around 9:00 and we still have the entire day to do those normal Saturday things that you do. If I take one thing from this experimonth, I want it to be Saturday morning.
It has still been a struggle for me to get up at 5:00. The alarm rings at 5:00 (4:51 actually), but I don’t end up getting out of bed until around 5:30. But this morning I think I solved that problem. Put the alarm clock on the other side of the room instead of right beside my bed, so I have to get out of bed to go turn it off. Then I have no excuse to walk all the way across the room and crawl back in bed for another few minutes. So this morning I was up and at ‘em right at 5:00. And after only about 5 minutes I was fully awake and feeling good, glad that I had gotten up on time, and outside starting my run already by 5:15. Hopefully this strategy works for me the last 5 days of this experimonth as well.
This week has seen some “later” mornings. We’re struggling to get out of bed by 5:30. We’ve been staying up later, enjoying the longer days and that has caused some groans in the morning. Strangely though, we’ve skipped coffee the past three mornings and manage to make it through the day. Another thing we’ve noticed is that Evan, who usually insists on getting into work at 7am has been lingering a bit longer at home in the mornings and doesn’t make it in until after 7:15 (not a huge difference in time, but something he would prefer not to do). I think these late mornings are totally my fault. There’s more incentive for him to get up and out of the door when I don’t wake up with him. Instead, we’ve found ourselves talking over empty breakfast plates on the back patio, enjoying the time together that we’ve sort of been missing out on at the end of the days because we’re both so tired. I think we’ve both started looking forward to get back to more of a “normal” schedule at the end of the month.
Friday
10:30 pm Driving back from the movies, we witness spectacular lightning displays. It is often so bright, that streetlights turn off “thinking” it is daytime. Limbs are down all over our street.
10:47 pm Electricity goes out. Cell phone alarm is set for 5am. We have morning plans for a long walk and breakfast at a local bakery before stopping at the Farmers Market.
Saturday
1:00 am Rain wakes us up. You can’t see 10 feet in front of you. Worried about basement flooding now that there is no electricity for the sump pump to pump the water away, we head to the store and buy a generator. Spend 15 minutes trying to figure out how to open garage door without power.
2:15 am Return from store. The worrier sleeps in basement to monitor the water level in the sump pump. The too-calm-for-their-her-good one sleeps in the living room because it is too hot to sleep upstairs in the bedroom.
3:00 am The worrier has been monitoring the water level and decides that the generator needs to be set up to pump out the water, wakes up the too-calm-for-their-her-good one to warn her of the upcoming noise.
3:40 am Generator stops, water pumped. Cell phone alarm is canceled – no 5 am wake-up this morning.
4:45 am Too-calm-for-their-her-good stirs awake. Briefly entertains notion of actually getting up at 5 and carrying out original plans for the day. Even more briefly decided that’s a crazy idea.
8:30 am Both awake, one emerging from the basement, the other from the couch. Not fully rested, but better off having slept in.
We will see the 5 am hour on Sunday morning this week.
Confession: I haven’t gotten out of bed before 5:18 any morning this week (but no later than 5:27 either). Even though 5:18 is not 5:00, it sure is a lot early than I would be getting up otherwise if I weren’t trying to do this experimonth. I’m trying, and that should count for something I think.
After a long busy week, I have definitely realized that they key to waking up early is going to bed early. To give this thing a fair shot next week I am going to try really hard to start getting ready for bed before 9pm, so that I can be falling asleep by 9:30ish. My bedtimes of around 10:45 or even 11:30 this week did not treat me well.
This week has been a test of wills – my daughter has somehow reset her internal alarm clock to correspond with my new wake-up time, and it’s not pretty. Instead of sneaking in an early morning run, doing some yoga, or catching up on my reading, I’ve been spending at least half an hour of my now-a-distant-memory alone time coaxing her back to sleep, side-stepping her meltdowns when she sees me getting ready leave, or hiding in the bathroom or pantry until the back door is out of her sight line so that I can sneak out of the house. If you think I’m being foolish, you’ve never been around a two-year old in a full-tilt megatantrum. Also, my husband gets to deal with the tantrum/meltdown fallout – and since he’s a stay at home father, I really don’t want to completely bugger his mornings.
So. I’m a little worn out this week, and cannot wait to embrace sleeping in this Sunday!
I may have broken the alarm. It still takes quite a lot of coaxing to push snooze. I think I may have found the right spot for the quickest results. But this morning, we only heard the alarm once, at 5:00. The next thing I know, we’re both getting out of bed at 5:34, undisturbed by loud interruptions every nine minutes. The “alarm is on” indicator light was still lit. How will we survive the rest of the month if “snooze” no longer works?
