I just added baby number 3 to my bunch. It’s been a whirlwind the past 3 1/2 months as we all get used to this new bundle, and as I, the mama, get used to having three kids!! It seems like so many people to raise. And, to some it is, but to other Moms, my little trio of children probably doesn’t seem like any trouble at all. I love this picture of my three little ones. It’s perfection in my mind. It’s real motherhood. It was 10 am and we were all still in PJs and baby brother was trying to eat older brother’s face. And my oldest was looking at the camera like, “Mom, what have you gotten me in to?” Love it.
I look at other moms with 4+ kids and wonder to myself, how do they do it? I think I realized the answer. You just have to let a lot of stuff go. So, I started thinking about myself and what I have let go of now that I have 3 kids. With every kid, you probably add another thing to the list (or 5 things) and pretty soon, by the time you have 10, they’re just raising themselves right?
With this third child, I didn’t buy Dreft detergent. GASP! I can hear you first time Moms chastising me through cyberspace. But, seriously, I thought to myself, I’m not going to waste my money on that, and better yet, I’m not doing a separate load of laundry for the baby. He’s got to wash his little onesies along with everyone else’s clothes. My Mom laughed at me when I declared that and said, “I was wondering how many kids it would take for you to get over that.” Three, Mom. It took three.
But, now that I have three, it seems there is a whole list of things I’ve gotten over. Like the following:
Sleep
A clean house
Quiet
Enjoying a meal
Changing the baby’s clothes every time he spits up
Sterilizing the pacifier every time it hits the floor
Never letting baby cry
Bathing with every blow out
Breastfeeding in Restaurants (I used to NEVER do this…now, I figure if the people around me want a quite meal, they can deal with it)
Being the Mom with the always well-behaved children in public
You get the idea. I could probably go on and on with my list, but for fear of getting seriously depressed (or depressing others, because seriously, I’m over it…mostly) I’ll stop there.
Motherhood is a crazy adventure. It’s one I’m grateful for, but it may not always be one that I’m perfectly clean and organized doing. But, you gotta love it and get over it.