Tuesday, April 7, 2009

And then there were three.


I will begin with a short history. At the age of 28 I became the mother of three wonderful bouncing baby boys. My oldest was 4 and my middle guy was 18 months old when baby boy number three arrived. Let me just say... the sleep deprivation didn't just begin upon the arrival of number three.

My oldest son A, now age 7, slept through the night at 8 weeks of age! Holy Cow! I now know that this is an amazing milestone because it's been unheard of ever since. And let me tell you... I didn't do anything differently with baby #2... he just wouldn't sleep! S was the happiest baby in the world during the day... for the most part; a monster at night! Finally, at 20 months... about 2 months after we brought our third son, Baby O, home from the hospital, S slept through the night. It wasn't until a year later that Owen finally slept as well. I cannot admit that to this day I do not get woken up in the night by at least one, if not all of them. I wonder now what I did with all of my rest before having children. I can't imagine that I ever complained about being tired! I am exhausted now but cannot complain because there just isn't enough time for that! You hear people talk about being sleep deprived, not being able to clean the house or even take a shower when they have kids but you really don't know the extent of it until you have children of your own. Before children it's like you magically think that it's not going to happen to you... for some reason, those "other" people, just aren't doing it right. Do you ever remember making the comment, "if that were my child, I would..." HA! What a joke. If you only knew what you really WOULD do, you wouldn't even make that comment!

Fortunatley, I have been blessed with three healthy boys but am now beginning to see that it's not just health issues that we have to worry about. It's developmental issues, social issues, etc. Your life can still be turned upside down if you don't know how to deal with certain personality differences in each child! Who knew that three children, made from the same mould, could be so different? Parenting is now, if it wasn't already, starting to be very difficult. I applaud any mother who is doing her best to take care of her children. I certainly applaud any mother who has more than three because I do not know how they can manage! Please fill me in on your secret to success!!

Another motherly issue... weight gain! Ugh! I honestly didn't know that my body would look like this after having a baby! I've always been able to lose weight rather quickly... if I set my mind to it! Well... that is no more! Who knew? It's another of those "superwoman" mentatilties perhaps... "that will never happen to me!" Oh well... let me tell you... it has.




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