new sleep patterns

I have always been the sort of person who wakes up in anticipation of the the alarm clock.  It's a big startling sound and I don't want it to be the thing that actually wakes me up.  So traditionally I would wake up about a minute before the alarm so I could turn it off before it has a chance to.

Babies are not constant alarm clocks.  Just when you think you are getting used to your baby's sleep schedule, it changes.  Which is cool to begin with as the change starts out by meaning they wake up less often and you get more sleep.  But once your child is only waking up once a night, a shifting night time wake up call can be extremely disorienting and it can leave you feeling drained in the morning (even if you had as much time in total for sleeping).

This shift in night time wake up calls is especially hard for some one like me, (who wakes to anticipate the alarm) to deal with.  Waking up a few seconds before you baby wakes up can be helpful when it comes to keeping the baby calm and getting everyone back to sleep quickly.  Waking up an hour before the baby (and subsequently having a hard time going to sleep again for lack of doing what one woke up to do) is not even in the same planet as helpful.

And to complicate matters further changes in the night time sleep cycle sometimes are predicative of changes in the daytime nap schedule.   After getting used to a three nap a day schedule (one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening) it can be hard on a mom to see the morning nap evaporate, only to have the afternoon nap lengthen. 

It has a big impact on how you plan your day, and the first few days of a new sleep pattern are hard to plan anything for, as it's not a firm routine yet.