I believe in Miracles

Before I explain what has happened, let me just preface this post with a few facts about myself... in case you don't "know" me. Ok...Here are the top three things I love to do.
1. Eat
2. Sleep
3.Eat some more and then sleep ha ha ok there's more to me than that, but lets just leave it at that for now. Lets Travel back in time...back to ages 16-23 and lets discuss my thoughts and behaviors on sleep. I used to think that waking up at 8-9am on a weekday was pretty early. I also thought that people who went to bed before 11:00pm where also those who received discounts on their movie tickets.....(no offense). On Saturdays you would not catch me awake before 11:30am(but to be even more acurate,I wouldn't get up until 1 or 2pm). And then after I woke up had some breakfast/orlunch, I would usually settle back down for a much needed nap. I would usually lounge around and watch TV with Jac for the rest of the afternoon, until we went out for the night. Jac and I shared the same Saturday routine...and WE LOVED IT! It was our day off, and that is how we choose to spend it...don't even knock it...We enjoyed every second of it..right shelly belly? In fact lots of times, we would eat our lunch together and then take our nap together in the tv room...it was quality sister sleep time...and fun! Nothing like falling asleep to a lifetime movie after you just slept 10 hours and had a yummy lunch!

My week day sleep schedule obviously didn't mirror the above routine, but my job did allow flexibility. I usually slept in until 9 or 10am and would get to work around 11:00am. Since I was single, I was usually out with friends or on a date and would get to bed between 1-3am.

When I moved to Oregon I started a job where my hours where 7:30am-4:00pm...oh baby talk about rough. I would have to go in the bathroom, sit on the toilet and rest my head on the stall and fall asleep. I did this in fifteen minute intervals..(no joke),I would set an alarm on my cell phone just in case 15 minutes turned into an hour.


I would fall asleep at my desk, head bobbing up and down as I fought to keep my eyes open for hours and hours at a time. I strategically placed my computer and chair away from others in hopes that no one could see. I could not take it...I needed to be asleep at the hours I was awake...7:00 am!!?? This was much to early. How did people do this? This was not natural, not normal, and could not be healthy! My body didn't want to eat breakfast at 8:00, it did not want to be in an upright position let alone try to swallow food! This hour of the day was for sleeping, laying, resting, not sitting or working, or thinking! I wanted to be sleeping!I really had a hard time adjusting. After 7 months I barley began to get the hang of it, if you can even call it that. I had a small glimmer of hope that in time my patters would slowly improve. I kept chugging along, waking up each day and pushing through..however the idea of going to bed at 9 or 10pm was something I just couldn't swallow. I fought the early bed time idea that would have accompanied a early morning routine very nicely. Instead I was stupid and I would usually get to bed around 11:30 or 12:00am...making me even more tired in the morning!! Silly me!

10 months ago when I started working at Freightliner Dave and I were able to choose the schedule we wanted to work each day..so we decided to work from 6:00am-2:30pm and have the whole afternoon to do whatever we pleased! It sounded good at first....but what was I thinking. I did the whole bathroom thing for a bit...that is until I found out we had a sick room! That was great! Nap time for me. Work was so slow and sleeping sounded so great! But I obviously couldn't keep that up for long. So, I caved in and began going to bed between 9:30 and 10, I was consistant about waking up at 5 am everyday.... I started to eat breakfast at breakfast time, I started exercising everyday......and waaahhllaa....10 months later...its a different story. I have actually mastered it.... Ya that's right... I've got it down. No more naps at work, no more falling asleep at my desk, no more bathroom sleeping. And as for bedtime, when I think about going to bed at 11:00pm on a week night...ARE YOU KIDDING ME...that's like telling someone to stay up until 2 or 3am when they have work the next day!

One more important thing to add to all of this.... for the past month and half I have been trying to loose a few lbs so I have been getting up at 4:00am and going to the gym, allowing us enough time to get to work by 6:00am. Every morning when my phone alarm goes off, I'm obviously tired. But regardless of whether I'm tired or not, when that alarm goes off at 3:45am I am up and ready to go by 4:00. And surprisingly enough within 5 minutes I feel fine.

OK...So are you ready for the MIRACLE (as if all of that isn't already a miracle) Obviously from this LONG DRAWN OUT POST you can see that I have changed my sleepy ways. I am now able to function in the mornings, I am able to stay awake at work.... 8:00 am is no longer early for me, bla bla bla.....But the reason I choose today to blog about this is because this morning something happened that put the mother of all ICING ON THE CAKE! This morning I was not woken up by my normal alarm clock. Today I was awoken by what some may call "a natural alarm clock" (the one my dad has inside of him that won't allow him to sleep past 8:00am no matter what day of the week it is) So...when I rolled over and reached for my phone to look and see what time it was...I was shocked to see 3:45am .... I Natalie Keyes Shaw, have officially trained my body to naturally wake itself up. And at 3:45am!

I don't think most people other than my family and my husband can really appreciate the significance of this event and or the transformation that has occurred here..(this is not a honk honk of the horn post) it is a can't believe after disagreeing and not believing my dad for years and years.....that I may just had my first natural alarm clock moment....i figured it was only right to blog about it.

And ps...to my knowledge I have not been invaded by any pod people, I'm still me...just not at sleepy and a tad more productive on Saturdays!