A few weeks ago, I posted about my 30 day challenge:

My 30 day challenge to myself isn’t really to do anything but beat my girls out of bed and have a sliver of time to myself. 

Beat my girls out of bed…oh, man… I’m glad you didn’t take that out of context. Perhaps I should have written something like, be the first one out of bed and start my day before the girls wake up. Because that’s what I meant.

Here’s how we did.

• I set my alarm for 6:00 a.m. and made the commitment to get up when the alarm sounded. No excuses. Well, except the obvious one; I knew there would be days that one or both girls would be up before my alarm went off and that was fine.
• The first couple of days were on point. Like, why didn’t I do this sooner?! amazing. I was able to get up and return some emails, get myself ready and felt like I was winning. I was earning a freaking medal at this.
• On one of those winning mornings, I got out of bed, sat on the floor and went back to sleep sitting up meditated. I have been super interested in meditating but clearly, first thing in the morning is not the optimal time for me to do it.
• Then, a sad sprint of night waking began. The girls would be up every two hours like newborn babies. And when they were up, they had real problems.
  • Harper started having nightmares about things eating her, which I mean is traumatizing and I totally get that.
  • Elliot was cutting her final tooth (for now, until the molars come) and has been entertaining an impressively juicy cough on top of it.
• The nights they would sleep through was like winning the lottery. My alarm would sound and I would think no way. And before celebrating, would go check to make sure they were still breathing. Yes, they are almost 4 and 2 and I still do this. When they are home during college breaks, I imagine myself behaving much like the creepy mom from the I’ll love you Forever book. Sorry girls. Don’t mind me. Are you breathing? Are you alive? My bad. Pancakes?

I can’t recall where I read this helpful piece of parenting advice but it rings true for me with every promise-filled-turned-chaotic morning. You have to move to the rhythm of the days. So that’s what I’ll continue to do. I’m gonna give it another 30 days knowing full well there’s only so much I can control with this new approach to mornings. Let’s cha-cha. 

[Featured image by Alex Jones]