3 kids in 3.5 years, holy cow! You may not believe it. We sometimes can’t believe it ourselves! I don’t think we could have take photos that more accurately display this stage of life right now! Chaos. Always.
I wanted to wait to write this post until I felt like we got into the swing of things over here, but I’m not sure when that will happen, ha. Transitioning to 3 kids is by far the hardest thing I have ever done, but at the same time, brings me the deepest feeling of joy. There is nothing quite like seeing your 3 babies together and knowing how much fun they will have together as they get older. But their age gap at the moment is quite tough! 3 totally dependent beings still learning to express their needs- well, you can say there are a lot of feelings right now.
Every day over here is different but I’d say for the most part, things have calmed down since we welcomed Jack into the world. The hardest part of bringing him home was my unexpected complicated recovery. If you missed it, I had a 3rd degree tear, hematoma, and infection, which meant I wasn’t totally mobile for a while. I had a LOT of help around our house because I couldn’t lift or play with our toddlers. With a constant rotation of people in our home, our kids felt quite confused. I was stuck in bed for long stretches of the day, many of which consisted of looking outside at the pouring rain and listening to my babies cry outside my door. It was exhausting and heartbreaking and I had to take a deep breath each day and remind myself that this phase would pass.
On the flip side, I was able to spend a lot of quality time with Jack which a lot of people may not get with their 3rd baby! Gosh I love that newborn phase. There is something just so special about a snuggly newborn baby and I felt like I got to embrace that a bit more. But I really missed Charlie and McKenna.
Newborn babies are so fragile and one of my biggest sources of anxiety was wondering where I could set the baby down to do simple tasks like take out the garbage or use the bathroom without worrying that an older sibling would accidentally knock him down. They are in love with their brother but learning to be gentle is a project in itself! Now that Jack has developed more of a consistent schedule and I have mostly healed, it’s been much easier to do 3 of them on my own.
If you know me personally or have followed my blog for a while, you may know that I take pride in being able to “do it all” with my kids. I struggle to say yes to help and have people in my home. I had to learn to let all of that go with this healing process. So many friends stepped in to wrangle toddlers, help me get them into the car or drive them to school, and also snuggle baby Jack so I could nap. For the first time, I really understood the meaning of “it takes a village”. I cannot thank all of you who have been in my corner!
Now that I’m cleared to exercise and do all the things, taking the big kids on dates and leaving the sitter with the baby has been one of the best things to ease our transition. For a long time it felt like nobody was happy in our house. We had days that felt like marathons and weeks that we weren’t sure how we’d get through but here we are, seeing the light again! Things have shifted now that we are on a better schedule and my toddlers have me back doing adventures again. It’s like we haven’t missed a beat!
This past week was the first that I had multiple days with all 3 kids by myself and I took them out and about! I’m pretty proud :) Then a little virus went around our house and sadly we were stuck at home a bit. But we made it through! Lots of playing with duplos, rotating bedrooms to play in, and crafts made for great activities while inside.
Jack is still fighting longer stretches of sleep and that has been a bit of a struggle for me. But I’ve finally become a little more comfortable with a few sitters who I think can handle all 3. So Eric and I have regular date nights and the occasional weekend “day date” and it’s been a blessing for our relationship and the overall balance in our house!
Balance is the ultimate goal, right? I think it is one of the biggest struggles in parenthood. Free time can be hard to come by but when you find it, it can overwhelming trying to figure out what you want to do with it. Sometimes I nap. Sometimes I run. Sometimes I read. If I’m feeling extra energetic, I do something creative. The best days are the ones where I can sneak a break from all three littles and do a few different things with that time. Then I feel like I’ve really set my mind up for a successful head space.
We are still adjusting a bit over here but I feel like lots of exciting things are on the horizon for our little family. I’m so excited to do all the summery things with the kids and family friends and really soak up this season of life. I know there will be many more marathon days in the future and tears to go around, but that’s all part of the process. And I’m learning to accept and keep my head held high!
Ohmygosh aren’t they cute???