As a parent of two little energetic girls, there are some mornings that I wake up and after a couple of hours with them I think, bed time can not come soon enough. I am pretty good about making sure that at 8:00pm we start our bedtime routine. Partly because I know this is good for them, but mainly because after a whole day of their love and shenanigans, I can’t wait to get them to bed so I can have some quiet. 

The problem is they don’t always fall asleep quickly. Elysse has picked up a new habit where she wants me to lay in her bed with her until she falls asleep. The bad side of this is that in the process of her falling asleep, without fail, I do too. Then I wake up 40 min later having lost some of my precious and long waited for “me” time. 

Here in comes my own issue with discipline. There’s so much I want to squeeze in that little time I have left before my own “bedtime” that inevitably what happens is I push the limits and go to bed later than I should. So I’m in this battle of wanting that little extra time but knowing that what I really need is rest, especially because I never know how early Elysse is going to wake up the next morning and because I also like to do my workout in the morning. And to have the energy to workout I need rest. 

As tough as it is I know I need to center my options around my bed time and be really mindful and disciplined about this because nothing makes me more irritable than lack of rest.