When Daddy Low first took on this job in UK, he was placed on the night shift - this means 4.30pm to 1am everyday, but often, he would leave early for meetings and only reach home at 2 or even 3am and would thus sleep at 3 or 4am, as he needs some mindless TV time to unwind before bedtime. And so, from the days of my pregnancy, I have started waiting up for him, just so that we can have some time together, since he would sleep till late morning the next day before having a little lunch and going to work again.
It was not ideal sleeping hours and I knew it, but it made sense that at least we would see each other and spend time together rather than have different sleeping patterns and miss each other altogether. That would be so weird - like housemates working different shifts...
I guess it is no surprise that Julien has thus adopted our sleeping patterns. Our day really starts from noon onwards, as the night feeds tire me out and push my waking-up time to noon time, especially since I was often sleeping at 2 or 3am with Daddy Low.
All this has to change now, because a new change has been introduced to this household - Daddy Low has moved to the day shift!
It happened so suddenly that we were both taken a bit by surprise. He was asked to cover a colleague going on leave and at the same time, sounded out about the possibility of moving to the day shift permanently. So, in effect, from the day he moved to covering duties onwards, he will be staying in the day shift!
I am happy. I am happy, because as much as I like sleeping in late, I know that it would be better for Julien to sleep normal hours. And as long as we sleep in, we will always not be able to wake up to go for baby activities, which are always more or less in the morning.
But oh, how difficult it is to move to "dayshift hours", so to speak! Especially when the wintry morning is often grey and gloomy; it makes one feel like the sun has not risen and why should we?!
So, I struggle everyday. Julien always wakes up around 7am (plus, minus one hour) for a milk feed. And this would be the ideal time to wake up. But it is so hard! My eyes are always heavy and my spirit is less than willing! I think the task is made harder by the fact that I have no one to answer to, no agenda to wake up early for.... so in fact, the natural thing seemed to be... hey.. SLEEP!
But really, I need and want to make the change. After all, Julien waking at noon means he is sleeping around midnight! And that really leaves little time for myself or for me and Daddy Low together. And the frustrating thing is I have often found that his evening feed time often clashes with our dinner time, so that I may have a hot dinner to start with, but often, by the time I get to it, it has become a cold dinner! Miserable!
Seems to me the way forward to achieve an early bedtime for Julien is to have him wake up early and stay awake! So, everyday, I try hard to keep both him and I awake after his 7am feed. Tough days so far and tough days ahead... but we shall not give up! On days I can push myself out of bed, I fortify myself with a cup of strong ginger tea, then busy myself with chores. On days I am a zombie and cannot get out of bed, the earliest time I can rouse us both out of bed is about 10.30am. Not bad, I suppose - it is, after all, a shaving of one and a half hour off our noon mark. And once I am done with adjusting his waking up and sleeping time, I am going to try to get rid of the nightfeeds! I can already see a black shadow developing under each eye! Argh!
But the nice thing that comes with Daddy Low's change to dayshift is that after Julien's morning feed, I do the naughty thing of bringing Jules to sleep beside me in our bed. I love to hold my boy in the crook of my arm and feel him curling up against me. And to smell his sweet baby skin. And to stroke his forehead and hair. And to just look at him sleeping peacefully. I think this is one major reason why we have so far met with little success with staying awake...
Well, we shall not give up. Hard days ahead, but I remind myself that the results will be blissful and worth it! :)
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