A New Normal… how I changed my most productive time of day again!

Last May, I blogged about how I changed my most productive time of day to the evening hours after our sleepless Nora was FINALLY in bed for the night.

It was a long process to make the change, but ultimately, it has been working really well for the last year.

And then Simon was born 🙂

I fully expected to make some changes after he was born; and I’ll be honest, I was a bit nervous how 2 kids with different schedules would affect my sleep and productivity.

Thankfully, Simon is a pretty good sleeper (so far) and has been going to bed really well. While he only takes 30-minute cat naps all day long, he sleeps like a rock when we put him to bed at night. He is often in bed by 7:30 or 8:00pm, and we rarely hear a peep from him until around 4-5:00am. Then he just needs to eat and have a fresh diaper and he’s sleeping again until about 9:00am. Glorious!

However, in the hours between when he wakes up to eat and wakes up for the day he’s really restless. He moves a lot, makes lots of noises (in his sleep) and usually needs someone to put his pacifier back in a couple of time. So his first 8/9 hours of sleep are very sound, the next 4 hours are not.

I’ll be the first to admit that a baby sleeping 8-9 hours in a row is AMAZING… the only “problem” is that I had gotten into the habit of working until 11:30pm or 12:00 — which meant I was really only getting a few hours of good sleep until Simon woke up to eat. After that I was continuously waking up by Simon’s noises, getting up to put his pacifier in, Dave’s alarm at 5:30, Dave leaving for school around 6:45, Nora waking up around 7:00, etc. etc.

Obviously not ideal.

The simple solution would be to go to bed when Simon went to bed so I could get a good 8 hours in. However, I have a 2-year old who is WIDE awake until 9:30 or 10:00 — and still wakes up once or twice every night needing Dave or I to go up there for a while.

Plus, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, those night-time hours are when I catch up for the day and get organized for tomorrow!

I knew I needed to figure out a way to get more sleep, but I also wasn’t thrilled about giving up my super productive super quiet late-night hours, especially since I had worked so hard to become more productive at night.

My New Normal:

My compromise is that I’m going to bed a couple hours earlier (around 10:00) and then getting up for the day after I finish feeding Simon (around 4:30 or 5:00). Also, Dave totally took over Nora’s bed time AND her middle-of-the-night-wake-ups so that helps me a ton.

This way, I still have 2 hours after Simon goes to bed to catch up, pick up, scratch a few things off my to-do list, and get organized for the next day. I’m getting about 6-7 hours of fairly uninterrupted sleep (which is amazing for having a 2 month old), and I now have about 2 hours (sometimes more) of a relatively quiet house each morning.

I can eat breakfast, get dressed, and work on blogging stuff while I take mini breaks to put Simon’s pacifier in. His noises don’t wake me up, Dave doesn’t have to be extra quiet as to not wake me up while he’s getting ready, and I’m 100% ready for the day by the time Nora gets up.

Win, Win, Win, Win, Win! 

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This “new normal” is working great for now… but I know without a doubt I will continue to re-work, alter, tweak, and change my schedule as Simon’s schedule changes, as Dave’s schedule changes during summer break, and if Nora ever decides to start sleeping through the night.

Also, I should mention that I only follow this schedule Monday through Friday. I definitely sleep in a little more on the weekends!

As with setting up and organizing a home, setting up and organizing a schedule requires continual maintenance to stay current and useful.

I’m excited to have found my new “groove”, I’m ecstatic that Simon is sleeping so well, and I’m encouraged by the fact that as our schedules continue to change, I have been able to quickly adapt.

I realize this type of schedule will not work for everyone, but I also know that little bits and pieces of my schedule might work for some of you… and spark ideas for others. There is never a perfect solution for setting up a daily routine and schedule, but right now, this is what’s working really well for me!