Life with two
What have I learned since having two children? Many many things. It’s been a wild, emotional and love filled ride. The highs are incredible, but the challenges along the way have been tough. The lack of time you get to yourself definitely takes a burden on your mental health, the feeling at the end of the day of being ‘touched out’ is one I had never experienced before, but seeing the relationship blossom between the two girls is pure magic. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Other than with more wine. And a touch more sleep.
So here are a select few things I have learned over the past nine months…
The neglect is real
When they say the second child is usually more chilled, what they really mean is that they are neglected. I think we held Elf pretty much 24/7. She had our constant, undying attention. Poppy, on the other hand, is basically just put down. All the time. On her play mat. In her bouncy chair. On a hard wooden floor. On the cold kitchen tiles. Sorry Pops, your sister is trying to recreate the diving olympics off the sofa, got to dash…
Utter carnage
You take your eye off them for a second and you’ll find them eating soil, drawing on the walls or the oldest sitting on top of the baby singing row row row your boat with all the actions. If I received a pound for every time I have said “gentle” in the last 9 months, I’d be a very rich woman.
Multi tasking Queen
Not me. My eldest. I have found that she mimics a lot of things I do. Breastfeeding all her toys being one of them. Or cleaning the house being another. My favourite moment was when I caught her doing a combination of both - breastfeeding her bunny whilst aggressively sweeping the floor. My absolute hero.
Marriage is a funny thing
Relationships take an absolute beating. No pleasant words are shared between couples who have a baby under the age of 6 months between the hours of midnight and 9am. I lost track of the number of times I threw the divorce card around at 3am. It’s amazing how you can look at your partner with such love, then they breathe or scratch their nose, and you wonder what this life is you chose.
The. Sleep. Deprivation.
You forget just how savage the sleep deprivation is. Our brains must block it out, just like they block out labour, otherwise we wouldn’t go back for seconds. It is horrific. When people joke that they will either throw themselves or their baby out of the window in the middle of the night, they aren’t really joking. Yet we are still considering having a third baby…
TV is life
Pre becoming a parent, I was definitely one of those smug people who said my children won’t have lots of screen time. Oh how naive and wrong I was. TV is life. Stevie is our third parent. The go to move when the constant carnage is all too much. Which is 7am every morning. And 5pm every afternoon. And all the in between. I have one question though…why is Norman Price still roaming the streets a free man?