My Toddler Alarm Clock

I used to set an alarm. Sometimes I would wake up before it went off, but most of the time, when I struggled to sleep during the night, that alarm is what would jolt me back to the real world.

Then, I had a baby.

My toddler's sleep pattern

My daughter is now almost 2.5 years old and (fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.) has been in a good sleep pattern for a long time now. In truth, my sleeping patterns have come to mirror hers, although, during the actual sleeping time, she does more resting and I do more tossing and turning – but that's a different story for a different day.

She goes to bed around 7 PM – give or take 30 minutes on either end – and she falls asleep on her own. She listens to music for a short amount of time and to a white noise machine through the night. She has a nightlight and a lovey, and she generally really likes her crib and sleep space.

The morning wakeup call

Most of the time, she wakes up between 6 to 6:30 AM. Within seconds of her little eyes flying open, she's calling out, "Mama, Dada, come get me."

Now, it doesn't matter if I had an alarm set or not, because I wake up when she wakes up.

Sometimes, I find in anticipation, I'm up 3 to 5 minutes before I hear her calling from me. In my opinion, this can only be described as maternal intuition, but you might feel like it's more that my body has just trained itself to adjust to her needs.

Our morning routine

Many days, my very cute alarm starts the day slowly. She'll have some milk and cereal and watch some TV or play quietly with her dollhouse as I get our day going. She knows that Mama needs something to drink (caffeine) and have something to eat, to let the dog out, and open the blinds, and then we'll sit together.

Some days, I do this without struggle. Other days, I find myself silently wondering why she couldn't just sleep for another half hour. Then, I internally debate if another half hour would make a difference, or because I live with insomnia, if I'd just be the same amount of tired 30 minutes later in the day.

By the time I'm starting to really function, my daughter is off to the races.

Keeping up with my toddler

She's ready to go outside, run errands, FaceTime with family members, go on an adventure, or do anything besides sit still. At 2.5 years old, she's unable to understand what it's like to feel tired all of the time. There are some mornings when we struggle – her needing me to have more energy and more oomph than I'm able to muster based on a night of tossing and turning or restless sleep.

When I became a parent, I knew that living with insomnia would have trained me for this adventure and would challenge me along the way, and I couldn't have been more right. Today, I feel extra challenged by this. My empathetic toddler has seemingly boundless energy from the moment her feet hit the floor in the morning and lately, it's been really hard to keep up with her.

How do you navigate a toddler alarm clock? What does your morning routine look like to compensate your exhaustion? This Mama is looking for any advice you might have!