I am not going to lie, two kids is hard work. A toddler going through the terrible twos is hard work. A high maintenance, sensitive 7 month old is hard work. Both of them together...well it's really hard. I have a newfound respect for single parents, and anyone with more than two children. It may be the age gap, there is 2 years almost to the day between them. I can already see my hands are only going to get more full. But, I love it. I love the chaos and I love that I have two amazing little characters for children. Obviously there are plenty of days where I want to hide in a cupboard with a straw in a bottle of wine, but then one of them will do something that will remind me that they are just children and everything they do is learning. My sister thinks I am insane and we have totally put her off of having anymore children. I'm always busy. If I could change one thing, it would be that we had a cleaner. The only reason we don't is because I couldn't bear someone picking up after me and I'd feel like I had to clean before they came. Oh, and I refuse to pay someone to do something when there is no reason that I can't do it myself. I just have to learn to manage my time better. I paid someone to professionally clean our oven before Christmas because I just couldn't get it clean, and I begrudged that. Although, it looked amazing after. I didn't want to use it, but Christmas dinner wasn't going to cook itself.
My days are just non stop and I honestly don't think I sit down until well after the kids have gone to bed. Which I'm sure is the case for most parents. 7-10am and 4.30-7.30pm in our house is just chaos. Jacob doesn't like to do anything he's asked at the moment, getting dressed is the top of the list. And Alba isn't the best sleeper, day or night. So she is tired alot. But also refuses to nap for more than about 30 minutes unless we are out and about with the pram. Jacob very rarely naps at all now. I think he's worried he will miss out on something if he sleeps while Alba is awake. He has been very jealous and I think he has found it very hard adjusting to life with a sibling. Alba says "mum mum mum" when she's crying and he says "No, she's my mummy!!!" And if I'm holding her and he wants a cuddle, he won't share me. He says "No, Alba on floor!" It's so hard as I know we have spoiled him with attention and so have most of our family. As much as I say we didn't, we probably overcompensated because of what he was going through.
The walk to nursery is usually a stressful affair. Jacob waddles along like he wants the snails to beat him there or screams most of the way that he wants to go to the shops. Recently, he wanted to ride his scuttlebug to nursery but wanted to go the wrong way, which ended in a full blown tantrum and being 20 minutes late for nursery. The worst part is that when we actually arrive at nursery he runs off and leaves me at the door! He goes to nursery Monday, Tuesday and Friday afternoon. Normally on a Monday, I'll pop into town and do some food shopping or potter around the shops. And then Tuesday I will try and get a few things done in the house but most of the time I end up playing with Alba or fighting to get her to have a nap! Fridays, Rich is usually home from work so I'll take this time to try and get the housework done so the weekend is ours to do what we want.
The nursery run tantrum.
We swapped the kids into the bigger room over the weekend. I was all excited until we'd finished and then it hit me that Alba wasn't in our room anymore. Jacob went into his own room at 3 and a half months old as he used to wake at the tiniest sound and would thrash about in his Moses basket like a caged animal. So with Alba being 8 months old, it's alot later than when Jacob left our room. It's been tough as I can't leave Alba to cry for very long as she would wake Jacob and vice versa. We've had one of them in our bed every night so far. Hopefully they will get used to each other soon. Bedtime is a nightmare as since Jacob gave up his dummy, he will not go to sleep unless someone is sitting with him, and Alba has always needed someone to stand with her otherwise she screams until she is sick and choking. Everyone says about letting her cry it out, but I have tried it with her and it is awful. She is relentless. And I can't bear to see her in such a state. With Jacob, controlled crying was amazing. A life changer. But again, I tried to leave him recently to go to sleep on his own and he got into such a state. And then it occured to me that there will soon be a time when they won't want to be cuddled at all, or have snuggles in our bed. So I decided that the back aches and kid dribble all over me is worth it. And I'll cuddle my little people to sleep if that's what they want.
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