Busy life
When people ask me what it’s like having three kids 16 months apart, I want to respond with – pure chaos. LOL, I mean I wouldn’t be wrong if I really did respond like that but it’s not that bad. One thing that is true is the fact that you are always busy from sunup to sundown.
The statement sunup to sundown is no joke. My husband and I set an alarm to purposefully wake up at 5am every day. This is to hopefully get some time to get ourselves ready for the day and to have time for us. This time could be for video games, reading, going to the gym, relaxing while scrolling social media or cleaning the house. I heard someone say that you can’t fill someone else’s cup if your cup is empty. That statement has never been so accurate. If you do not set time aside for yourself, even if it’s just 20 minutes, then you will be trying to pour from an empty cup all day.
Once all the kids are up, fed, and had their milk then the nanny comes over and it’s time for us to go to work. We then bust booty at work for 8+ hours a day then come home to feed babies’ dinner, spend as much quality time as we can with them while they are awake and then we get ready for bedtime. Once babies are asleep then it’s time to clean the house, or at least tidy things up.
So, as you can see, being a parent is a full-time job. Keep in mind too that even though we set our morning alarms for 5am and are in bed around 10pm, don’t forget that right now our twins are still waking up at least 3 times a night. Are we tired? LOL, yes we are but we are working to provide for our kids and to give them a childhood that they can look back on and love.
Another aspect of the chaos is just trying to leave the house and make it to events on time!
I remember when it was just my husband, myself, and Kaison we would take 30 minutes max to get ready to go anywhere, now with all 5 of us it takes at LEAST an hour! We have to not only get ourselves ready but we have to change three diapers, change three outfits, get snacks and a sippy cup ready for our oldest, get bottles and formula packed with the thermos full of warm water, pack the diaper bags, make sure we have some sort of toys or activity for both our toddler and the twins, and then we have to put everyone in car seats.
Something that makes this process much easier is to pack the diaper bags in advance. If you know you are going to be going to a doctor’s appointment, family event, or any other planned outing I definitely recommend packing diaper bags the night prior. This will also minimize that chance of you forgetting to pack something during the frantic mess of hurrying out the door.
Then once you get on the road heading for whatever event you are going to, you start getting anxiety, or at least I do! I don’t know if this is a mom thing or what because my husband does NOT get this way, but he has come to expect it from me now.
I just get so anxious in the moments leading up to the event. I start second guessing myself on if I remembered everything. I think about what if all three of my kids decided to have tantrums at the same time or what if my toddler doesn’t listen. There are just so many things that run through my mind that make me anxious. However, once we are there at the event, I am fine! I did not used to be like this before I had multiple kids but now it’s something that happens almost every time we leave the house as a family.
You could say that our lives just feel “rushed” right now in this stage of life. But even through the chaos we find time to slow down and enjoy our little family. Whether that be going out for a family walk on a nice day, coloring with chalk on the patio, or watching a movie while playing with toys.
