Life With Three Children

I’ve been a mum to three little people for almost 6 weeks now and I don’t quite know where that time has gone. To be honest, I don’t even know where the last 5 years have gone. It doesn’t seem a minute that I was a newlywed and yet here I am with three children!

Life used to be so different, teaching every day, being free to do as we pleased of an evening and at the weekends (well we will forget the marking and planning that took over my life…). Life was simple really. That’s not to say life isn’t simple now, it is just a little bit more full. Yes, I think full would be a good way to describe it.

Life with three isn’t so different to having two, it is more the fact that one of them happens to be a newborn that makes life more… interesting. Having two never left me any time to myself and three is no different, I am always doing something for one of them whether that be getting more juice, wiping a snotty nose or sitting feeding the baby.

Yesterday it got to the end of the day and I realised I hadn’t been for a wee all day – then I realised that was probably due to the fact I’d not had a drink all day. Not great when you are breastfeeding I can tell you – I ended up with an almighty headache at bedtime! The thing is, when you have kids you just forget about yourself don’t you? It definitely gets worse the more you have too, simply because there are more of them to detract away from any wants or needs of your own.

The hardest thing right now is getting everyone ready in the morning and I have tried two approaches to this. The first was to just go with the flow, feed the baby when he needed and cross my fingers that everything fell into place. That lasted all of one day! The second, more successful approach is to become a sergeant major and keep to a very tight schedule. This means setting my alarm to wake up before everyone else, feeding the baby and getting us both dressed and ready for the day. Next is the other two, getting them breakfast and sorting their clothes. While they get dressed I give baby the second half of his feed. Done!

If any of this fails, the whole schedule backfires and we end up racing out of the house like maniacs. This may or may not have happened more than a handful of times…

Something I am noticing more and more is the fact that my brain doesn’t work like it used to. It now lives on in the form of a list and if I lose my list then all hope is lost. If I don’t write something down then it quite simply never existed and that is that – until someone asks why I didn’t turn up to x, y or z! I forgot a dentist appointment the other day (which reminds me I need to book baby’s 8 week appointment with the doctor) as I hadn’t written it down. Thankfully they understood when I rambled some nonsense down the phone to them. Probably felt sorry for me, poor bedraggled mother.

Life with three is full, it is hectic and a bit of a rushed event for the most part but it is also full of love. So full of love.

I knew my heart would grow again, just as it had done when going from one to two, and it didn’t let me down. Being their mother is such hard work at times but when I hear their voices first thing in the morning, have them jumping on me for cuddles in bed, it makes it all worthwhile. As I write this I have a very sleepy baby lying in one arm, not wanting to go into his own bed as mummy is much more cosy. Honestly, how lucky am I?

We thought we were done at two, three had seemed such a daunting prospect and so we’d laid that idea to rest. Circumstances changed though and I am so glad we changed our minds, having another baby was just the best decision and I cannot even imagine not being a mama to three now. The only way I can describe the way it makes me feel is that it is like I’ve come home. I might be super tired, thirsty and in need of a wee, but I am home. Home is most definitely where the heart is and my three have captured mine forever.