A tough Morning

A Rough Morning

Being a working Mom can be tough at times. I am not going to lie- I think it has some advantages too but today I am going to focus on one of the hardest parts.  I can say that in only one word.... MORNINGS

My office is on the other side of town and to get there in a expedite manner ideally I need to be on the road by 6:45 am.  If I leave daycare at that time  it takes me about 25 minutes to do the 20 mile drive down 494 to my office- if I leave 20 minutes later it will take me at least 40 minutes (and up to two hours).  As result of this time difference I try REALLY hard to leave closer to 6:40 but to be most honest recently I have not been making the goal very often.

Our morning ritual looks like this.  Most days my alarm goes off and I get up (or hit snooze a few times) and get ready by myself.  Some days Marcus is already up and although that makes getting ready harder for me- it does actually make the day easier overall.

Rise and Shine Marcus!

 

Around 6:15 ideally I go upstairs to wake up Marcus.  Some days he is sleeping pretty hard still when I get in there (these are the hard days).  I say "Good Morning Sweetheart"- or something like that and the normal response is "No" or "Turn light off".  He is really not to excited to start the day off.  Some days I cox him out of bed with the promise of a bagel or a yogurt and it works and sometimes it doesn't.  Some days I ask if he wants to cuddle- and if it should be upstairs or downstairs..... I think it is about 70 - 30 good days verse tough days.  On the good days he pops up and is ready to go.  The bad days- like today he just says "No Mommy"...

Eventually, I go and pick him up and we head either to the rocking chair, the couch, or the office to change clothes.

 The worst part....

The worst part of this process is getting his clothes on..... If he is not in the mood for this it can HORRIBLE.... He cries and flails his arms and legs... He is fast and sometimes by the time I get the second leg in he has managed to get his first leg out.  I try to stay calm and explain why we are hurrying. But it is hard... I remind myself to be gentle and kind but it is so frustrating.  It tries all of my patience and breaks my heart at the exact same time.  I am sure if some one was watching it would actually pretty funny to watch the entire process.

Finally, it is over and he is dressed. The worst is done but he is still upset.  This morning he was crying so I said- "do you want a hug" and he did.  I hugged him and he grabbed on tight and gradually his breathing slowed and matched mine and gradually his heartbeat slowed and once again matched mine.  We stayed there for a moment and all was well- for at least a moment. 

Not my best picture but can you see how good the hug is!
(this was not actually this morning but following a similar
event- only at bedtime),

From here the morning is easier- even on the hard days.  We may cuddle for awhile, eat some food and head off to daycare.

I have to admit tough mornings are hard and leave us both exhausted.  It is the mix of tired toddler and getting dressed- both of these individually can be a trial- add them together it can be overwhelming and upsetting.

I did find a great article full of good tips on dressing a toddler:

Tips on dressing toddlers

The only problem is that is doesn't help on the morning part.  I guess I have some more googling to do in my future.

There is one piece of irony-  for some reason on the week-ends Marcus wakes up earlier than during the week- so on the days he can sleep in he wakes us up instead!