Drowning myself in caffeine has been increasingly normal for me since Henry is home.
What changed?
When Henry came home, I volunteered to take on the early morning shift. That means waking up and getting out of bed before 5 AM. I have heard of the concept of the 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma. But waking up early is a lot harder for me than sleeping later.
However, since a hungry and crying baby is the same as an iPhone alarm on steroids, I now am a devoted member of the 5 AM Club.
And?
Getting out of bed is hard.
While I know the chance is slim, every morning after Henry starts crying, my first reaction is always to calm him back to sleep. Just so that I can close my eyes for 5 minutes longer.
Staying out of bed is hard.
Once I got myself out of bed, my body instinctively started the baby-feeding process. While it is easy to stay awake during the preparation, it is hard during the feeding.
Be productive.
Henry usually eats for about 30 – 45 minutes and he does a decent job going back to sleep when his belly is full. During the week, this is when I get into my car and start driving to the office, which is about 15 minutes away. At weekends, I have more options including journaling, writing some blog posts, or just returning to bed.
So far
It has been 3 weeks since I am trying out this new routine. Let me tell you, it does have ups and downs.
When everything is working as expected, I feel like there are more hours in a day. Especially when those additional hours are undistributed by others. My productivity is much higher now before adopting this routine. Lastly, since my day starts earlier, it also ends earlier as well.
On the flip side, if I end up not sleeping before 10 PM, waking up before 5 AM is just impossible. I am hungry a lot more often and earlier than before. Since I am coming in and leaving earlier, late-afternoon meetings suddenly became as irritating as early-morning meetings.
Overall, I do think this is a positive change and I am eager to discover more benefits and constraints as I continue exploring this newfound life after paternity leave.
