Bedtime Top Ten

Top 10 Thoughts About Dekker's 7PM bedtime:

Top 5 reasons I love a 7PM bedtime (in no particular order):
1.  It gives Dave and I time to be a couple.  I love eating dinner together, talking, watching shows, sitting on the deck (remember when it was warm enough to do that?).  Dave, I love you, and our time together has changed so much with the blessing of a child-- I love connecting with you in the evenings.
2.  It gives me time for housework, cleaning the kitchen, packing diaper bags and lunch pails and paying bills.  Blah!  This stuff stinks but it has to be done at some point.
3.  It gives me time to do hobbies I enjoy-- like reading blogs, blogging, reading books, going to 7:30 yoga down the street, talking to Beth on the phone.
4.  It gives me time to relax.  I might be the only 2? year old that enjoys a good, hot bath.  This has become such a stress reliever for me, and I love having a half hour to relax and recharge.
5.  I love that I can do the above things and still get to bed by a reasonable hour, say 10:30.

Top 5 reasons a 7PM bedtime is difficult.
1. Days like today.  This is what got my wheels turning.  I left the house at 9AM and walked in the door at 6:30PM, just in time for PJ's, bottle and bed.  This rarely does happen but when it does it is very sad for me.  It also cuts down on the time Dave sees Dekker, as he gets off work at 5.  Thankfully he works in the basement and gets lots of time during the day and throughout the evening.
2.  It is admitting-ly hard to be home by 7PM every night.  I feel like we miss out on a lot of social events, game parties, dinners out with other families, etc because we try really hard to be home by 6:30 or 7.  This is even more true in the summer.
3.  We have dinner with Dave's family every Monday night.  This is so important to us that we keep Dekker up for it, but that doesn't mean he's very fun company.  The same is true for small group on Tuesday nights (so we host every week and put him to bed).His little body is in such a routine that no matter where we are he falls asleep, or is crabby until he does (sweet thing).
4.  I have discovered a tendency to leave everything until after bed.  So I put Dekker down and then run around doing all the housework, laundry, bills, relaxing, work paperwork, etc.  I must discipline myself to do this at other times in the day, too.  I haven't yet figured out how to keep him occupied (and out of the dog's water dish) while doing some of this stuff.  I'm sure I'll get better at this Motherhood thing with time.
5.  Probably the most obvious, an early wake up time.  Dekker wakes up between 7 and 7:30 every morning.  Now, I work 2 days a week and this is perfect.  On the other days, there is absolutely no sleeping in.  If I keep him up until 8 or even 9, he will still wake up at 7 or even EARLIER.  He is a classic, text book definition of "Early to Bed, Late to Rise."

Well, again, this was good for me to get off my chest.  I was really struggling on the way home from work today that I would only see him for 30 min tonight.  But after writing this down, I am still totally glad that his bedtime is so early.  It is really good for his body, good for our marriage, and good for the rare nighttime babysitter-- even if it's not ideal for our social calendar or evening work hours.  If you want a good book to read on childhood sleep, check out Good Night, Sleep Tight. We loved it.

Tomorrow is my Friday AM weigh in and I am still cautiously optimistic.  Details to come.

On the Journey.

Stef