05 December 2008

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

I hate mornings.

Well, I guess I don't have to be that harsh about it. Let's just say that I am nowhere near a morning person. I don't like being up anything before 9am. And even that, if there's nothing going on, seems a bit early to me. I would much rather stay in bed until around 10 or so, then maybe get up, surf the Internet for a while, feed The Boy, and stay in my pj's until I have to go to work in the afternoon.

I have always preferred the nights instead of the mornings, as far back as I can remember. When I was a kid, my parents would send me to bed, and I would just stay up and play with Legos or my GI Joes (or both) until I fell asleep. There are a few times I remember waking up the next morning next to my bed, with Lego pieces stuck to my face.

I never wanted to go to bed.

In college and after, if I ever saw 5am, it was usually from the other side. As in, "Holy cow, it's 5am! I really need to stop drinking coffee and go home!"

For the past ten months, I have been able to hang out and watch movies and generally have wonderfully relaxing mornings with The Boy. It's been awesome! Sure, I have to complete my share of the chores, but chasing around a crawling (and now walking) baby made things interesting and fun. Plus, I've been able to watch cartoons all the time, and have excuses to crawl around and play with toys too.

It helps that The Boy is not much of a morning person either. We would both prefer to sit on the couch for a while before we get moving around. I don't quite know if he was simply wired that way from the start, or if I trained him that way. Either way, I'm not complaining.

But there is a down side to this Ante Meridiem utopia: The Bride and I don't get to see each other except for on the weekends, and groggy fifteen minute intervals if I happen to wake up when she leaves for work, or if she happens to be still conscious when I get home from work.

That's not much of a marriage, and it's not much of an example for The Boy to follow.

So, starting sometime around the New Year, I will be making a massive transition to first shift. The gentleman co-worker that previously held the position retired last month after 37 (!!!) years with the company, and I have been given first rights to it.

I am super stoked. I cannot imagine the positive changes that are in store for me, for us as a family, and for those around us!

It will be a hard transition to make, for various reasons. As it is right now, my Bride and I have worked separate shifts for nearly our entire relationship. We have developed our own ways of doing things, and our own habits, and there will be some friction. But that is to be expected, I think, and with our patience with each other and God's grace to us, we'll figure it out.

Also, first shift begins at 0600 hours. Remember what I said above about 5am? Yeah, that's going to be my new alarm clock setting. Unless there's an early departure, then I would be required to be at the airport at least one hour prior to scheduled departure. The little New Ager in me is frantically scrambling to rearrange my biorhythms in order to establish wellness within the paradigm of my new circadian cycle.

It's going to hurt.

But the hardest thing about this shift change will not be the new schedule. No, the hardest thing about this shift change will be that I will miss out on mornings with Eli.

I treasure waking up to hear him jabbering in his crib. It warms my heart to see his gummy, groggy, sleepy smile when I walk into his room. I love the way he tries to climb into my arms.

I love getting ready to face the world with my son.

It is special to me, and now instead, I will have to face the morning with cold, hard metal machines and unforgiving, inflexible schedules.

There is much to be excited about, but I will miss mornings with Eli.



wingnut

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If it's any consolation, I was never a morning person. But after a while of working a regular morning job my preferred shift start time is now 6am. I don't know how it happened, but I'm ok with it :-).

Ted M. Gossard said...

Quite interesting and heart warming, too.

I happen to be more of a morning person, though I guess about the only thing I'm not is an afternoon person on a regular workday that is. But in the morning is when I'm most alive.

I do hope your transition goes quite well for you and yours. Sounds good.

-Tim said...

I feel your pain, dude. Same story for J and I (minus the tyke... for now). Our interaction, even on weekends, is generally a groggy, "love you, pooh bear" as I tumble into bed at 1am, and when she gets up at 5am.

I can't wait for the same shift time for us! Only ~2 more years to go?