Any tips for managing morning pain and fatigue?

[Lifealittleboulder]

Good morning!

I wonder if anyone can offer me any tips on how you manage in the morning with start of the day pain and fatigue when you have children. My husband starts work at 6:30 so the children are generally waking up around seven my eldest is 11 and he gets his own breakfast, get himself dressed but his teeth and then goes into the front room and chills out on his phone usually. My youngest is six and so often he needs much more support in the morning. He’s quite a relentless personality absolutely full of the joys of spring, very loud and happy. He makes his bed turns off his nightlight opens his curtains as a wee washes his hands and then comes to me. I’m usually asleep or just waking when he comes in.
Mornings are my hardest time for pain and the fatigue feels overwhelming. All I want to do is turn over and go back to sleep but it’s impossible because I have responsibilities. Much as I would love to be able to tell you that my 11-year-old could make my six-year-old’s breakfast it would just end in a row, he’s definitely doing the preteen thing and as much as I believe he’s a beautiful wonderful human he isn’t the easiest in the mornings!
We leave the house at 8:25 to get to school, which is a 5 to 8 minute drive down the road to the village school. In September we will be driving across town to get my to secondary school for 830 and then back across town to get my little to the village primary for 850 which is going to be a mission!
Obviously, when I first wake up, I am without any pain meds on board I tend to be really grumpy which I hate!!! once I am up I make little’s breakfast, help him with anything he needs and he gets himself dressed while I get myself dressed, we do the hair/suncream et cetera. I’m always in quite a lot of pain and pretty grumpy and I hate that. That’s how the kids day starts. I do pack lunches and to check their bags the night before.
What are the tips? Would you have for me? What am I doing wrong or could improve on?

Thanks so much for sticking with a long post!

Ask your husband to run you a hot bath before he leaves for work so that when you get up you can get straight into the bath, i do this and I find it difficult to get out of the bath but it helps significantly with pain and stiffness in the morning, I couldn’t manage a morning without this. I do some very gentle stretches in the bath and this along with the heat of the bath water helps me to start moving and prepares me for the day ahead. Maybe if you get up when he leaves and get straight into the bath it gives you time to have a long 30 min soak before your children are up. I add magnesium/epsom salts to my bath. Perhaps if you wake up early when he wakes up or around 6am, he can bring you a cup of tea and a fresh juice in bed, and it gives you some time to gather the strength to get up say 30 mins to have your drink, gather your thoughts and summon the strength to move (it takes me a while to physically be able to get up) then another 30 mins soak in the bath, then you are up and moving around for 7 when your children are getting up but you will feel better. It also gives you downtime before you have to join in in conversation which is difficult when you are fatigued. Throw on a cosy fluffy dressing gown after your bath then get dressed when you have a chance. Massage arnica oil into your joints after this if you need some extra relief. I do this with a hot bath every day though not always this early as my husband leaves later so is around to help me with the children in the morning for longer , then if I can manage I’ll push myself to walk the school run as the exercise helps loosen my joints further. About 10/15 mins walk in total. Plus bit of fresh air is good. Sometimes the stiffness is so bad I cannot get up unaided, and the brain fog makes me feel like I’m hungover even though I haven’t drunk alcohol for years. I often feel like I’ve been beaten up in the night and I’m waking covered in bruises. the mornings are sooo hard but this routine helps me. Good luck x

I take my pain meds while still in bed, I've done so for years. If I have a change of schedule and have to get up early I set an alarm to ensure I've got time for the meds to kick in. I also keep some breakthrough meds beside the bed so if I've a particularly bad night I can take these as soon as needed to try control any flare. I get as much done the night before as possible, I cannot shower in the morning because it exhausts me so that's done just before bed and not every night, clothes laid out, lunches made, etc. I struggled when my dc was young and I had a lot of help (single parent, lived with my parents and brother who were all fantastic) so I understand who exhausting and painful it can be, is there anyone else going to secondary from your area that may be able to share the driving?

I take pain meds on waking and a caffeine tablet not ideal I know but it gets me through. I don’t like coffee so this is my caffeine fix.

Do you wake up when dh gets up? Could you take meds then and they'll have kicked in by morning?

Realise it might be hard to get back to sleep, just throwing it out there. It's what I did when I had a broken pelvis.

If you set your alarm for an hour before you have to get up would you be able to go back to sleep? If so I agree with taking pain meds so it has time to kick in.

Do you work? If not can you just deal with breakfast/school run as best you can and go back to bed for a bit when you get back?

I am dreadful in the morning, mainly fatigue and the only way I could deal with it was to rest when I got back from school drop off. If you work obviously that isn’t do-able, in which case def would try pain relief and caffeine tablet/coffee before you have to get up, I really empathise. I remember crying with exhaustion as a child when I was prised from my bed each morning.

Can your doctor put you on slow release meds so there is always some in your system? Also if you take more than one, try to stagger them so you have some cover in the morning. Eg I take slow release anti-inflammatories once every 24 hours with my dinner in the evening. Others I take every 8 hours.

My sympathies, it's really hard.

I do this too- I often wake at around 4:30-5:00am to use the loo, so if I’m having a flare I take pain meds then and go back to sleep. It really helps! If my joints are particularly bad and I know I have to be on reasonable form in the morning, I’ll set an alarm to go off very early, take medication and go back to sleep. You have my full sympathy, bouncy children and early morning pain are not a happy combo 😣

I also second PP’s idea of a bath in the morning. On the mornings when I’m in charge but in a lot of pain, DH will bring something upstairs for DS’s breakfast (obviously not cereal 😆) and DS sits in the chair next to the bed and munches and chats away to me, which he sees as a very special treat. I sometimes feel very guilty about being sore and irritable in the mornings, but I think DS particularly loves those mornings because he gets breakfast in with me and that makes me feel a lot better about it all. Then I run a bath for DS, I have a comfy spot to sit just outside the bathroom so I can see and chat to him, and then I get in the bath myself while he gets his uniform on and does teeth. The warm water really helps.