They must forget that a year ago I was taking care of five kids ages 12 months to 4 years by myself. Brian worked from 4:30 am to 6-7 pm seven days a week basically and the girls weren't in school yet. I not only took care of five kiddos alone at home each day but I also hauled around those five kids to doctors appointments, the grocery store, to run basic errands, to go swimming at my moms, ect. There's honestly nothing about raising a certain amount of young kids that makes me nervous anymore. Raising teens, now that's another story ha.
But really, I know what it's like to care for 3-5 kids and even before we had the foster boys I never got nervous about it when I realized that I'd soon be taking care of five kids under the age of four. Everyone adjusted well and it was like we had been doing it forever.
For me going from one baby to two was by far the hardest. I was so used to giving just Charlee all of my attention that I struggled at first to fall into the flow of dividing my time evenly between a newborn and a barely 10 month old. We caught on though and set a strict schedule. That schedule is what I've used with all of my kids even our bonus boys. I swear by it and swear it's why I had five good sleeping kiddos. After adjusting to having two babies it was a breeze to add more. I tell people all of the time that after having two kids, what's one more? It's all pretty much the same after that point ha. Stick to a schedule and make sure to give them all some one on one time daily and you'll be just fine. Plan to be places an hour early because getting multiple kids ready takes longer than you'd think. You can start getting ready an hour earlier than you're used to and still barely make it places on time. That's really about the only thing that is harder after having more than two kids. Getting them all ready, loaded up, buckled in safely, and to places on time. It's time consuming but you get used to it or if you're like us you just go less places.
As far as starting over with a newborn after not having one for over four years, I'm not nervous as all. I'm super excited about it actually. Newbornhood is my favorite. My kids are old enough now to get themselves dressed and buckle themselves in. I lay out their clothes for them, fix their hair, and double check their buckles to make sure that they are done properly but other than that it's so much easier now that they are older. It'll be a cake walk having just one baby after raising 3 babies all at once pretty much. I think that my older kids will be very involved with their baby brother or sister and that's something that I've never got to experience. My oldest was only 19 months old when my youngest was born and with the foster boys one of them was already two and the other was a year old so it wasn't like having tiny babies around. My kids were involved as play mates but not very involved during the baby stages. Even with Braydee, our youngest bonus babe, that was a year ago when we had him full time and he was mobile. He was a baby to us but still playmate age. My kids will be much older than they were then when this baby is born. I'm crazy excited to see them interact with their new sibling. They ask me every single night 'how many more sleeps until our baby is here'. It's precious. It makes me curious to see what it'll be like if we have a 5th when they are even older. I picture us having a newborn, 3, 7, 8, and 9 year olds but Brian says knowing me we will be pregnant again by this time next year ha.
My advice to moms going from 1+ kid(s) to 2+ kids is simple:
S C H E D U L E S are life!
Even if you have 2-3 kids already, if you've not found the God send of scheduling do yourself a huge favor and do it now. It may be hard at first since your kids aren't used to it but you'll be so thankful when y'all get into the swing of things.
Set one and stick to it at all costs. Get your kiddos into a napping routine at the same time. Bath them at the same time. Feed them at the same time. Do everything at the same time. (This also gives you a break every day during naps to clean and catch up on chores.)
*Obviously with a newborn they sleep and eat way more than toddlers/preschoolers do so at that beginning stage just do your best to keep the older ones doing things together and as baby grows blend baby into their routine.
I do one on one time once Brian gets home from work which is probably the most important part of our schedule to me. If you are a single parent do an activity that keeps all of the kids busy but devote your time to one of them at a time during that activity. Example, craft time. Set them all around the table and let them all make crafts. Go around the table giving special time to each of them while the others are busy or take one of them at a time away from the table and read them a story or something. There are a lot of ways to squeeze in 'just us' time.
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