Wednesday 6 January 2010

Things I've learnt as a Mum of Three

and a few other things I didn't need three kids to find out.


  • Gas is funny. ALL of my children have laughed at their own ability to produce noxious fumes before they laughed at anything much else.


  • Gas produced while sitting on someone is even funnier. Dragon took to this one more than the others (so far). As soon as Dragon could crawl Lion learnt that he shouldn't lie on the floor to watch TV or Dragon would crawl over to him and sit ON LION'S HEAD and pop!


  • People falling over is funny. I never got this, I didn't find it funny and to be honest I worried about Lion's lack of compassion at the start but as he gets older I have seen interesting changes and can look back to where he was and see Dragon there now. At the start everyone falling over was funny and he would try to make himself fall without getting hurt just for the laughs. He then realised that if he gets hurt then so do others but this didn't extend to people on TV, that was still funny. Now he has compassion for people on TV too, he can pick which falls would have hurt or been dangerous and which ones were just silliness and he can see the humor in those. Dragon still can't empathise with the pain of people on TV or his brothers pain but he does get worried about everyone else.


  • Inside your little house during the day when you have just one kid you are pretty much responsible for any noises that wake the baby. With two kids you can usually get a couple of good naps happening for the baby and the oldest is unlikely to spontaneously burst into tears and come screaming into the nice quiet baby room. With three, naps are the exception, not the rule. If you are alone with the baby that leaves two older children unsupervised and able to injure each other sending one (or BOTH) screaming and crying into the nice quiet room about some perceived injustice or minor injury (or major injury occasionally)


  • Each child down the line seems to grow up faster than the ones before. Seriously, 4 months old? When did that happen?


  • With the third child you worry less about SIDS and more about how your older children will manage to kill their younger sibling. Tipping the bassinet over? Shaking the bouncer till the baby goes flying across the room? Crushing the baby while giving "cuddles"? Smothered by kisses? all of these and more are the possibilities.


  • With your first you are the only one dealing with the nappies, with your second if they say anything about the smell you reply "oh, it's not that bad", with the third you chase the others away with threats of "I'll accidentally drop this stinky disgusting nappy on your head if you keep hovering around behind me"... you know, some people might, not me of course, that's disgusting!


  • With your first you are the only one that plays the games with the baby, with your second you come up with all sorts of genius modifications to games to encourage them to be playing together, with your third you are more likely to be heard crying "FOR GOODNESS SAKE LEAVE THE BABY ALONE FOR TWO MINUTES!"


  • With one kid you think you're tired, with two you are sure you can't possibly get more tired than this, with three you are pretty certain that the sleep you managed to get in the last month is approximately how much you got in less than a week as a teenager.


  • With your first you get cuddles from one sweet little darling, with your second you get cuddles from two sweet little darlings and with your third you get cuddles from THREE sweet little darlings.


  • I can only imagine things go down hill from here :-)

And most of that is pretty much a summing up of our day today.  Lion has a hole in his head (blood and all) from the tail section of a rather large Lego plane, Dragon had to be forcibly removed from Monkey many times, Monkey DID NOT SLEEP but had lots of very funny gas... and so it goes on...

So what did I miss?  What have you learnt from being a mum?  If you're not a mum what scares you most (other than the childbirth part) about becoming a mum?  What has changed as you have had more kids and if you have more than three does it stabilise at any point?  I have been told that after three there's not much that changes but I'm not inclined to believe that.


Can you believe he's four months old?

18 comments:

  1. OK, I'm worried. I was worried before, but now I'm REALLY worried. I have no idea how I'm going to cope with three kids. It scares the crap out of me, to tell the truth.

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  2. Oh Heather, I am sorry I made you worry! Today was crazy, for sure, but the days where you just want to start over are few and far between. Your little man is coming into a completely different house, you have that sweet Bee who occasionally sits still to play! I am also very sure that things here will change totally when Lion heads off to school in a few weeks... I am sad about it but I am pretty sure things will be a LOT more calm. Don't be scared, I have found the adjustment from two to three a lot easier than the adjustment from one to two, and you survived that change. You will do GREAT!

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  3. Oh, I dread the days when you feel like you are on the " spin cycle."

    Thank goodness the cycle ends ,unless you have a part broken of course, and the next day hopefully will be easier.

    Your a GREAT MUM

    Luvs

    Suz

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  4. Oh, I wonder what the jump from 1 to 3 in one motion will cause? I suspect the sleep bit will jump to your experience with Monkey (if not worse).

    That is the cutest photo of Monkey so far. I love his gummy smiles but my favourite monkey moment when he chats with his Aunty Kate. Pity you can't put that on your blog. He is so CUTE!

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  5. AWESOME post, you wise woman, you! You had me cracking up. And, I am SO tired of gas around here. Yes, even Nurse Boy STILL thinks gas is funny.

    My advice? Start praying for their wives. Chances are, they will need it. ;0)

    Mrs. NB

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  6. I totally get where you are coming from, though my kids aren't at the stage where they laugh at their own gas ... yet. But I agree - where have the last few months gone? Considering I have had less sleep in the last 3.5 months than ever before, you would think they would be dragging because I am awake more hours of the day, but no, it is still going fast :)

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  7. Oh darling girl, you sure have learnt a lot. I don't have the experience of 3, but watching others with more than 2, a lot of what you say is true.
    And once they all move out of their baby and toddler state it all gets smoother (or crazy in a different way- still working that one out).
    Beautiful photo of Monkey to finish with!

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  8. What a cute photo of little Monkey.

    In my experience, no.3 was a huge adjustment. No.4 and no.5 slotted into their place in the family very easily but no.6 was a rather difficult transition. Maybe it's every 3rd child that's the challenge.

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  9. Have to disagree with the sleep bit. I don't think triplets would cause more sleep deprivation than Cheetah did. I got more sleep in a night when Little Bear was a baby than I did in a week with Cheetah. And that was even when Little Bear still woke up several times a night.

    Love those smiling photo's. He is giving away some beauties lately.

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  10. Making the adjustment from1 to 3 was huge! But I have to mention that boys are certainly busier than girls at any given stage

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  11. I'm laughing hysterically - I know how you feel! And 3 boys - boys love to discuss bodily functions that produce noise! At any age! As the only girl around, all you can is stand there, blankly, wondering how this happened!

    I think what I have learned the most is when I'm worried - to trust God. If there's a problem, never give up! Bumps, bruises, and holes in the head - not even a rise in blood pressure - when my 5th grader broke his collar bone in soccer practice - I took control and did what I do best - be the mom who gets things done without panicking! Of course, the time when another one broke his wrist in soccer, I thought he was faking it and told the ref to yellow card him! I guess as a mom of 5 sons' I've developed better timing on when to be tough and when to be gentle! You gotta stand nose-to-nose with these boys to men and not let them see you sweat - of course, when you do that, you seriously hope they've brushed their teeth! LOL

    It sounds like you are doing an awesome job! Keep it up:)

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  12. I totally agree about kids growing up so fast... When my oldest hit high school the whole family hit a fast forward button. I hate it... I have really been digging my heals in lately to slow down.

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  13. I have three kids (all grown) who were just like yours! Buckle in, 'cuz it is a long ride... fun, wearying, and wouldn't trade it for anything! :)

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  14. Three was definitely the toughest adjustment. Soon Monkey will earn that baby can have anything of his or anyone else and Mummy will say things like, "Just let him have it, he's the baby" Aww to be the baby.

    I can't believe he's growing up before I get to drop by and cuddle him. I'm sure I'll be in the neighborhood soon.

    Hugs

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  15. I found with 4 boys now that I am so relaxed. You know, you just can't keep sane if you panic at every little thing they get into. My eldest 3 can handle a sharp knife, all of them can hurl themselves around a trampoline (although thankfully the 18mo is only jumping and running at this stage) and tree climbing is a regular event. I just can't be bothered panicking anymore. I just smile and figure I will pick up the pieces to take to hospital when it happens, not sooner.

    The other thing I have learnt - have a sense of humour, and be quick to act calmly in case of disaster. Or is that be calm while acting quickly in case of disaster?

    My boys help me lighten up. I hope you enjoy your boys. They are great little animated messes.

    Best wishes
    Jen in NSW

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  16. *gasp* 4 months. Like blinking.

    I have to say four isn't much different from three except that you have three kids all trying to smother the baby with love, so really it's survival of the fittest at that point and voila, you've got one tough baby.

    My youngest has caught on to everything (except potty training,of course) much faster than his siblings, he's wily. He had to learn quickly or be left behind. He's quite the handful actually.

    Your list was very accurate. Gas is always funny at our house, unless it's dog gas, which can empty a room.

    I never did worry about SIDS with number four, he slept on his belly from three weeks on because it was the only way he would sleep. Sometimes I still feel like I haven't had a good night's rest since high school.

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  17. I can not believe Monkey is that old, no. Seems like he was born just yesterday.

    I've learned with just my one, that everything I thought I knew I didn't and things I thought I'd never know, I now do.

    Huh? Well...it's late here.

    But I've also learned that I can love one human being so much ...even when he's screaming and crying and flailing. I've learned that my idea of a baby in a crib and then in his own bed isn't real (at least in this family) and I've learned that I can never plan on a day going one way or another once you have a child!

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  18. OMGoodness! Monkey is beautiful!
    Happy 4 months!

    Ok, what have I learned...
    This is my favorite:
    When the phone rings, the kids always have something important to tell you.

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