Early mornings- how can I do them with better grace?!

[Lookandlearn]

I have two dc, 5 and a half and two and a half and am 32 wkd pg with dc 3. They aren't late risers-somewhere between six and six thirty. I don't really see this as a problem I can moan too much about. So my question is how can I get my head more quickly into nice mummy mode and out of "go away I want to sleep" mode? I am so grumpy when tired or woken early. Just want to be able to haul myself up without resenting it! It'll get worse before it gets better after new baby arrives!!

Go to bed earlier.

Don't expect too much from yourself too early. When I have to do the early shift on weekends and holidays (working f/t normally) I have a rule that I don't have to interact too much until I've finished my first coffee, which takes up to 40 minutes.

Mine are 4 and 21 months. Of course I do speak but basically it's bathroom, eat, cbeebies until that first coffee has been had.

I agree - I have 2 early risers and I am completely guilt-free about letting them have TV first thing. I remind myself that lots of children are still sound asleep so not getting smiley interaction from their mums either! We do cuddle and maybe a story then they get dressed and they get parked in front of the TV while we shower, get dressed etc. Proper parenting starts at breakfast time! (Sadly recent spanner in the works is that DD1 is getting too old for Cbeebies and DD2 still too young for CBBC, but that's a whole other thread!)

I have had a series of early risers, and at the moment, ds (10 months) wakes between 4 and 5 am, dd2 (4) wakes at 6 and dd1 (5) wakes at 6.30. Dh and I do 3 days of getting up with ds each, because he doesn't go back to sleep when he wakes.

I have absolutely no guilt about putting the computer on for me, drinking tea, sticking telly on and just mumsnetting while I cuddle ds and dds watch tv. Otherwise I don't think I would survive the chaos of the school run!

Thank you! Of course you're right tee, but there's only so early I can go! Trying to be in bed by ten, having got absolutely everything done for next morning. That gives me enough sleep, but of course it doesn't always happen. Thanks for the permission to do telly first thing. Sounds similar to our house-whoever gets up first sits on sofa and cbeebies goes on. Breakfast time means telly off and other things happen. I think that first waking up feels less stressful if I know that all that anyone needs to do is get dressed, have breakfast and brush teeth and hair. And I've started putting a banana by my bed last thing so I can greet the day with higher blood sugar! Early bedtimes are dull but sanity restoring- I can get into the mindset that I deserve a long evening.

Dotty2 - I have the same prob re Cbeebies and CBBC hahahaha..... infact they now argue over the laptop as dd wants to watch cbeebies on it and ds Arsenal goals on Youtube (sigh). I am a grumpy mummy too for the first 5-10 mins when they come in full of beans and I'm not 32 weeks pg!

Ditto re telly - it has taken us 5yrs to get to (mostly) post 6am starts and when it was 5am on a regular basis I thought I would be grateful but I still struggle, especially if I have been woken several times during the night. Lying on the sofa with them while they watch TV and I try and convince myself I am still in bed and asleep for an hour is the only way.....