Adjusting to Life with 3 Little Ones
Well, I'd say we're an incredibly thankful, mostly happy and pleasant, though generally overtired (and occasionally, overly emotional) bunch around here lately!
I'd have to say it's mostly the mama who fits into the overtired and overly emotional category (okay, and maybe the 2 year old as well). But, sleepless nights and crazy hormones aside, I'm doing well. Loving my little brood, reveling in my sweet newborn girl, and trying to just take it easy and recover from the birth.
Recovering is hard work. Do you know why? Because it requires me to slow down and not do anything! I don't like to not do anything! As you can imagine, I have a hard time really letting my body heal and recover for the simple reason that I find it so difficult to just stop and rest. And so, I keep starting to feel really great, then begin to push myself just a bit too much, and bang, I'm two (or three or four) steps back again, feeling worse than I did before.
As a result of this continued pattern over the past two weeks, last night my husband gave me 3 priorities for this week:
- Take care of myself
- Take care of Johanna
- Work on my new ebook (because it only requires sitting at my laptop. Easy, peasy.)
That's all I'm allowed to do! And write this post. 🙂 It drives me crazy, but deep down, I really appreciate it. Isn't he great? (Seriously, he's in the kitchen as I write this, making a gallon of Bread and Butter Pickles for me, because I'm not allowed to do kitchen work. What a man. Sigh.)
(And yes, that's a sling he's wearing, calming a fussy little girl- it's worth it to buy your baby carriers in husband-friendly colors!)
Even with my current limited responsibilities, life is busy and bustling around here! It's impossible to be bored or to have many calm, quiet moments with 3 littles, that's for sure! There's always someone who is hungry, or thirsty, or needs a bum change (or both little ones at the same time!), or is loving on the baby a little too aggressively, or has an owie, or wants to tell us something, or made a mess, or… you get the point! But it's a wonderful sort of busy, and we're slowly adapting to it and learning how to balance the needs of three small children. Thank goodness for all those freezer meals and a husband who was able to take a bit of time off this summer!
In the midst of it all, a few things of interest:
1) The baby poll! I had almost forgotten about it, until yesterday afternoon! What's really funny about it is that nearly everyone expected Johanna to arrive much earlier than she actually did (me included!), and so most of the dates guessed were much, much before her date of birth. The winner is actually the very last entrant, who put her guess in after I was already overdue!
Harmony is the winner, with her guess of:
August 14th (it was August 12- the next closest was August 10th, but when I took the time and weight guesses into account, this one was closer)
3:40 pm (5:22 pm)
girl (yep, she's a girl)
7 lbs 10 oz. (exactly right!)
Congrats, Harmony! You've won a $20 Amazon gift card, and a copy of my ebook, Healthy Homemaking: One Step at a Time!
2) Cloth diapering a newborn is really not difficult at all. With my first baby, I started cloth diapers at around 6 or 8 weeks. With my second, I think I waited 3 or 4 weeks. This time, I had been given one pack of newborn sposies, and I was determined to start cloth after 1 week. It actually ended up being more like 5 or 6 days, and off we went! I've been using a combination of pocket diapers (Fuzzi Bunz, DryBees, and Haute Pockets), and fitted with covers (mostly Indisposables, with a few other random diapers mixed in, and for covers I've got Proraps and Bummis Snap). It's working out really, really well, is far easier than I thought it would be at this stage, and hey, if you're already doing cloth with one child, then why not with two? The more the merrier! LOL!
3) The garden that continues to produce, in spite of me. Someone just asked me the other day if I'll share my experience of gardening and preserving through a summer of pregnancy and having a newborn, once I hit the end of garden season. I can already anticipate my answer- it just doesn't go together very well! 🙂 Of course, I'm saying that in the midst of 3 weeks during which I have barely gone out to my garden at all, except to do a bit of harvesting that simply had to be done.
However, I actually kept up with it all pretty well until baby arrived, and even though I am seriously neglecting my garden, it continues to produce food for me. Gotta love that! The weeds are dangerously high and I believe they are plotting a coup to take over my garden. Nonetheless, I am picking cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, onions, carrots, beets, beans and the last of the cauliflower. The potatoes are ready, but I'm fortunate that they can sit in the ground for a couple of weeks, and thankfully my tomatoes are a bit behind this year and won't be ready until probably early or mid-September.
As soon as I can, I will be back to preserving, and the series that I began earlier in the summer on Preserving Summer's Bounty. Yesterday afternoon, one of my dearest friends came over and helped me (ie. did most of it herself) can just over 20 lbs of peaches. Is that not love? She called it her baby gift to us. That's what I call a great baby gift- 12 pints and 5 quarts of freshly canned peaches! I should have taken pictures of the process, but I wasn't quite that on the ball. Next time, I promise!
That's it for me! I'm signing off, but there's most guest posts ahead for the rest of this week and next week as well!
Keep the main thing the main thing, Stephanie and enjoy that baby!
All your work will still be waiting for you after you’ve recovered! =)
Sounds like your hubbie is a good man….
Blessings,
Jamie
What a husband! Sounds like he knows you very well…and I’d say making pickles for you shows just how much he loves you 😉
Enjoy this time! It goes so fast, doesn’t it? Seems like just yesterday my 9 month old was that teeny….sigh!
Could I make a request that you write a separate post on cloth diapering a newborn. I started cloth diapering my daughter at 4 months and she is over a year now-so I have that down. We aren’t yet pregnant with #2, but I think I’d like to try cloth diapering from shortly after birth like you-I think this is when you’d reap the most savings going cloth. I just have unanswered questions… I love and use pocket diapers on my toddler. Do they really make pocket diapers that fit newborns under 8 lbs.? If so what brands and where can you buy them at a good price? Which ones are the best? (reviews) Do you launder more often with a newborn or just get a bigger stash? How diapers would you realistically recommend in a newborn stash?
This resonated with me. I had my third daughter 4 days after you had yours and am struggling with sitting still too. My husband had to go back to work after a week and I’m struggling to rest enough, but still keep things presentable without having major physical setbacks as well. I think it’s probably every new mom’s balancing act. I’m hanging on to the disposables for another week or two until the cord falls off and I have it in me to do more laundry. Hopefully our bodies will bounce back soon!
That’s so great! Thanks for the update and the pics. Way to go hubby!!! So glad he’s a good helper and doesn’t mind you taking a pic of him wearing his hip sling. 🙂 Take it easy, you!
What a great post! You made me smile. Thank you. I needed that! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love the pic of your husband wearing your daughter. We have lovely pictures of my husband wearing both our kids, too, in our blue ergo and black moby wrap…he doesn’t like the ring sling even though its in green!
I cloth diapered my first baby after 4 days. Our second baby I used cloth from the very first diaper. I think they thought I was crazy at the hospital I had to give birth at….but that’s okay. This is what I know from using cloth with newborns: having at least 3 dozen is ideal. I have 4 dozen, but 3 would be totally enough. Having at least 5 covers. I had 10 with this last baby and it was WONDERFUL having that many. I have just used prefolds and covers (and do 99% of them to potty training). I have a few Bum Genius one size pocket diapers but in my experience they didn’t fit my 8lbs 2 ounces baby girl until around 12 pounds even though they “say” they start at 8. Prefolds are NOT as hard as they look!
And for the garden….mine just gets along without much attention too, and I don’t have a newborn anymore. Life gets busy! Glad your husband is taking good care of you! Wish I could come over with a nice homecooked meal for you.
Take care of yourself!! I know how difficult it is to slow down and not “do”!! Glad to hear that things are going pretty good and that you are all adjusting!
Blessings!
I love hearing how things are going with you and 3 kiddos! We have two and have kind-of went care-free on when we have the third (so maybe anytime now). Sometimes I think it would be great, and other times I can’t imagine how I will do it.
I am like you in that I can’t sit still. Even when I watch TV I need to be doing something else. I unfortunately ended up having c-sections with my first two, so that is now my fate for the future too. I have a bad tendency to try to get active way too soon. This is definitely not good when you just had surgery! My husband has to keep me in check!
I would also love to hear more details about cloth diapering a newborn. We did disposables with our first and started cloth on the second at 4 months, so I am curious how many diapers you need for a newborn. Also what is your technique for getting the runny poop off? You mentioned before that you found the “cure” for nighttime rash which I am going to try. I am curious what you do to stop leaks at night. Our boys urinate so much at night that they wet through anything – disposable overnight diapers & pull-ups and now thick cloth diapers with extra layers too. Any suggestions for making it through the night? I feel as if I am washing sheets every other day!
Thanks!
What beautiful pics! Thanks for the update. Love the one of your husband with the sling. My husband had to wear floral slings LOL!
We’ve been cloth diapering our newborn from the beginning, too. I never bought any disposables! 🙂 Since we’re already washing toddler nighttime diapers (and a few more “accidents” these days), and “mama cloth”, we just do a wash load of that all together each day (and hang them on the clothesline to dry). We’re using Kissaluvs diapers with Proraps and Bummis Snap covers. We use my homemade cloth wipes.
I’ve been doing lots of resting while my amazing husband chases our toddler around, and handles the kitchen stuff. He’s picked up where I left off at getting garden produce into the freezer, and is actually having fun preparing meals! 🙂 (Our friends have made it easier on him by delivering groceries regularly, too.)
Hope you have a good, restful week! By the way, Johanna’s dress is adorable!
Blessings,
Michele
I can totally relate. When I was in recovery mode, it was hard to sit still! You’ll get there! Keeping your mind intellectually active will help.
Awww! Congratulations on your precious little girl. She is SO beautiful! I’m right there with you when it comes to adjusting to life with three little ones. What has been hard for me is that there is a ton of work to be done outside, and I just can’t do it. It’s way too hot for the new little one to be outside with me, and I can’t leave her inside by herself. What’s a mom to do…? Oh well. But of course, it’s all so worth it!
Awwww…I’m so glad things are going well! I didn’t even have a garden last year b/c I was having a baby in June and knew I wouldn’t get out there. What a cute family, how blessed you are!