I felt as though I spent my entire pregnancy mentally preparing myself for three kids under four years old. This time around it was a surprise as oppose to a planned pregnancy and I was extremely daunted at the prospect of having no family nearby to support us and flying solo Monday-Friday having all three humans to keep alive. All the professionals kept calling me an experienced mum and all my appointments seemed so short. The health visitor must have only been here 20 minutes - "oh this is your third your what we called an experienced mum". Unless experienced means not being very good at contraception, bumbling through life and wishing for the best then yes thats me!
So having nearly completed my sixth week of solo parenting after my husband has returned to work I feel elated that life ain't that bad and I'm actually enjoying it. Now granted this is only six so trust me I am far from smug on the matter and know that at any moment life could turn cray cray but thought I'd put together my list of top tips for any folks out there battling their way through each day attempting to survive.
- clothes out the night before for EVERYONE! Yes even the baby who wears a singular baby grow!
- Forget ironing clothes, who cares if your top is a little crumpled it'll soon be covered in either sick, snot or porridge. Wacking your boob out every two hours will detract people from the non ironed clothes. Oh and don't wear black it totes shows up snot and sick, something patterned helps camoflage the bodily fluids.
- Embrace odd socks, last time I checked no one died from a case of odd socks! Live a little and clash!My son now loves having Spiderman on one foot and hulk on the other.
- Bulk cooking/ freezing left overs and slow cookers will absolutely save you from a catastrophic meltdown when three children are all crying to be fed
- Ikea is now requested by two of my three children for afternoon entertainment. My three year old gets booked into the soft play for an hour and my 1 year old gets to run around messing up a variety of front room mock ups which aren't mine whilst I try out sofas for their breast feeding comfort.
- Get a huge empty cardboard box and trap those little ones in it with toys and pens and let them go wild! Hours of free fun right there and I can guarantee they will be heartbroken when the box falls apart and needs to get recycled.
- Use directly from the dishwasher, don't waste your time emptying and refilling just take directly from it until its empty!
- bath time everyday is a must. I don't understand anyone who misses a bathtime I love it for the simple fact that for 45 minutes those little suckers are confined to the bath and not demolishing my house
- Do everything in your power to enforce a bedtime, I love my brood but after a full day with them I love nothing more than shutting those bedroom doors and settling down with a glass of wine mentally preparing myself for round two tomorrow. I'm currently day two of controlled crying to get the littlest imp onto a routine!
I wrote a little dit last night at around 4am as I breastfed my little princess remembering how hard I found it first time round when I only had one baby to look after. If you had told me four years later I'd be looking after three I would have laughed in your face as I took my newborn to the toilet with me because I couldn't possibly put it down whilst I went for a wee!
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