Early mornings...

One thing’s for sure, you certainly get good value from your weekends when you’ve got a little one. Before we had Harry, our weekends were a chance to catch up on sleep after a long week at work.

I’m not talking about staying in bed all day, but being able to sleep until 9am was taken for granted.

Nowadays, sleeping until seven is a bonus. Over the Easter weekend, Harry was up at six every day – which meant we were downstairs having breakfast by quarter past. Unlike me, however, Harry is full of beans at that time of the day.
So on Saturday morning, while I was nursing a cup of tea and feeling sorry for myself, Harry was shouting at me to make a jigsaw with him. Believe me, it takes quite a lot of effort to get down on all fours and play at that time of day.

But getting up that early does have its advantages. For a start, the day is a lot longer.

We were out and about by half past eight, which is great if you need to go shopping – everywhere is, understandably, nice and quiet at that time of the morning (except, of course, for other parents who have been woken up at an unsuitable hour).

Another advantage is it encourages you to drink less alcohol; the thought of being woken up at six in the morning after one-too-many the night before does not appeal. While this can be a bit depressing, especially over a bank holiday weekend, I’m sure my liver is very grateful.

Finally, it also means I get to spend plenty of time with Harry – being up at six gives me a good 12 hours to play with him. The only thing is, we’re both ready for bed by seven in the evening.