Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Good Night.

I am sitting here at my computer on a lovely Monday evening. The house is picked up, the lamps are on, and I have some ice cream waiting for me. The house is quiet.

This evening is brought to you in part by early bedtimes.

(Well, my version of early bedtimes. I do have friends who put their babies down at 6:00. I am not talking about that early of a bedtime.)

When Cub was a wee one, we typically put him to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 and he would sleep until 7:00. We did this so he would sleep through the night, which he did fairly early. However, as he got older and his bedtime became earlier, I realized the beauty of a quiet evening. I decided that when Naomi came along, I would do my best to try to get her to bed as soon as possible, once she was past the eating-every-two-hours phase, even if it meant holding on to that middle of the night feeding a little longer.

And, wouldn't you know, once her tummy normalized, the little Mouse started getting sleepy earlier.

Now both of the babies are in bed by 8:30. This gives me thirty minutes to pick up the house a little and still make it to my bed by 9:00, where I either read or consume ice cream while watching a bit of TV. Or I can run to Walgreens to pick up pictures, something I hate to do with both kids, since it is such a short trip but requires so much work with two little ones. :) And, it gives my husband and I time alone, so we can catch up on our day or even watch a movie.

And really, I'm just way more tired this time around and heart early bedtimes for that, too.

Now. This means that both of the kids are usually up by 7:30 or 8:00 the next morning. And I'm good with that--I'm a morning person, so I don't mind if my kids are, too. But, I have a friend who always preferred to put her kids to bed later, so they'd sleep later in the morning! My kids aren't quite there yet--typically they wake up around the same time every day, regardless of when their heads hit the pillow the night before.

How about you? Do you love having your evenings to unwind or do you love having your mornings to sleep in?

6 comments:

  1. No matter how late I put my son to bed he pops up (except for a few rare times) by 7. Hence early bedtimes in my house. I really love the peace and quiet.

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  2. Same here. E gets sleepy around 7-8, and it really doesn't matter when we put her down....sometime between 7 and 8 the next morning, she's up! Once, we put her down pretty late for her (9:45) because we were out and about, and I thought she'd sleep in. NOPE. 6am it was! It seems like with her, the earlier she goes to bed (within reason, of course), the longer she'll sleep in the next morning. Weird. And Russell and I are loving our quiet evenings together. I miss the snuggling, but now I'll just trade snuggling buddies. ;)

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  3. Our kids made their own schedule, and it just happens to be just like yours. They go up for bed around 8pm and are out by 8:30 most nights. They both get up with the sun around 7/7:30ish. Doesn't bother me one bit. I like having those few hours of quiet before bedtime with just my husband and I. I also can't imagine putting them down at 6pm. My husband would never get to see them and that would be sad. He enjoys the few hours after dinner that he gets to play with them and read books. It's really the only time he gets to see them outside of the weekend.

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  4. I start bath time around 7ish, then we eat a bedtime snack, then we try to have her in bed by 8 and read a story. She usually wakes up by 7am. I am very greatful for this routine. Sometimes, we don't make it to bed that early, but like you, I love the evenings to myself or with Derick:)

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  5. someone once told me, "sleep begets sleep." I thought they must be insane - turns out she was pretty much right. My little one's go to be at 8 and my bigger boys go to bed at 8:30 - that way we can get evening reading of books and telling of stories and singing of songs and saying of prayers in with all of them and still have time to ourselves. :) I do think bedtimes are great opportunities for quality time and conversation with my kids - a little pillow talk is a big deal to them.

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  6. Can I say that I love both? I am getting every last bit of sleep that I can. I am a night owl, and I love staying up late. I also love to sleep in. And, take naps during the day. Yikes. I have always loved to sleep. I realize it is a luxury I won't see much more of soon. The trade off is worth it, though.

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