Missing My Alarm Clock

There was a time when the sound of my alarm clock in morning was the most dreaded and hated sound I could imagine. This is no longer the case. I now WISH that I could hear that sound, just once or twice a week. Since going back to work after Christmas break, I haven't heard that sound. Instead I wake up to "Momma"...."Dadda". Now this might sound like a better way to wake up, and I will admit that I would much rather trade this sound for the beeep, beeep, beeep of my alarm clock. However, the problem lies with the time that these sounds are occuring. Liam has decided that 5:00-5:15am is a good time to wake up. My alarm clock isn't set to go off until 5:45am.
I know that this doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is for me! That extra 30-45 minutes is now a treasured period of time that I miss. What makes this even worse is that I like to take my time in the morning and relax a bit before heading off on my busy way, so at 5:45am when the alarm is supposed to go off, I have given myself an hour and 15 minutes to get ready. Add on the extra time when Liam is ready to go, and I have about two hours to entertain, feed, dress, and change his diaper, when all I want to do is make a pot of coffee and watch the news.
Today, being a furlough day, should have been a sleep-in day. But oh no! That doesn't work in our house anymore. Liam was up at his usual time. Unfortunately for him, mommy was not ready, nor willing to get up. I let him stay in his bed and play, call for me, and a bit of crying for 45 minutes, at which point he went back to sleep. I can't believe that this worked! I actually got to sleep in (after about an hour of listening to the monitor) unitl 7am! I even had to go check that he was still breathing, which is what actually woke him up.
This won't work on a work day, because he can hear me getting ready and just gets more agitated, but at least I know there is hope that one day he will just go back to sleep. So for now, beeep, beeep, beeep is charished and missed.