It is 5.45am.

Drifting slowly out of a sumptuous, deep sleep, my ears pick up the faint sound of someone tapping on a hard surface; a tapping that gradually gets louder as I, ever so slowly and begrudgingly, awake from my state of unconscious bliss.  I become more aware of the tapping, which has suddenly turned into a loud, incessant banging, with an intermittent accompanying whine of “Mamaaaa”. 

I fumble around in the dark for the ‘snooze’ button.  It’s no use though; there isn’t one for this model.  I put the pillow over my head to muffle the sound, to no avail.  I am awake now and, so it seems, is my toddler.  I lay there in the dark listening for a short while.  Then an unpleasant realisation creeps across my mind.  My son has possibly decided that this unearthly time of the morning will be my new wake-up call for the foreseeable future – a personal alarm clock I could do without to be honest. In fact, I’d quite like a refund. 

Perhaps I’m being harsh?  After all, things weren’t always like this.

Last month, before the clocks changed, he was waking up at around 7am each morning.  I could handle that.  It was a nice, sensible, humanly-possible hour and allowed plenty of time for the school-run with his older brother.  Fifteen minutes earlier then that would have sufficed, also.  Even half an hour earlier would have been okay, albeit at a push. An hour and fifteen minutes earlier, however, is just plain cruel.

I know, I know, it’s not my toddler’s fault, him being a, er, toddler after all.  It’s just that when you’ve had a solid routine in place for months on end, any deviation from this can really knock you for six.  That one hour and fifteen minutes I lose means that I can’t help but return to the zombie-like state of the long-since-passed-newborn-stage.   I start requiring a nap during the day, which in turn means I go to bed later at night, only to be woken up earlier, meaning I need another nap to keep me going through the day again… And there a vicious circle begins.

I’m hoping this slight blip in my toddler’s sleep pattern will eventually sort itself out.  I have tried putting him to bed at a later time and cutting down on his daytime nap, all to no avail.  If the early waking continues for another week, I may have to resort to drastic measures… Yes, that’s right; I’m putting the clocks forward.

 It’s going to be summertime all year round in my house!