Sleep when she sleeps. I wish!
Ever since my twins were born I'm lucky if I can get a few minutes of sleep in the afternoon while my oldest is napping. Lucky for me, they don't always sleep at the same time. So my advice to moms of two or more is - go to sleep as soon as they fall asleep at night! Never mind doing the dishes, cleaning up, folding laundry or whatever it is that you like to do after they've gone to bed. Do it, in the morning, during the day, while some of them are napping. At night - sleep!
Make meal times quick and easy. I've started preparing a few meal starters every week, that way, when dinner time comes, I have at least one part of it semi-ready.I like to clean and cut some veggies like green/red peppers, onions, parsley, chives and other herbs and have them ready for use when I need it. I make a big pot of beans (a staple in our home) and then freeze it in portions, same with cooking ground beef and shredded chicken. Another great thing to do is make up our favorite chicken marinade, mix it in with some chicken breasts/tenders and then freeze it! It's totally safe and beyond helpful. Think about it, freeze some cut up chicken breast in a soy sauce, when the time comes, defrost the chicken, grab some of those peppers and onions, cook them, make some fresh rice and BAM! - a nice simple stri-fry!
click on the image to learn more about 1 hr-16 meal starters tip
Enjoy each kid individually. Set some time in your day to sit and enjoy each one of your kids. Give them some one on one time, play whatever they like to play, let them set the rules, read, play with play dough, cook something with their help, let them "fold" laundry with you. Enjoy them. Don't go through the day worrying only about a clean house, loads of laundry and etc. Have fun and enjoy your time with your babies... they grow up so fast. And before you know it, they'll be opening the fridge to get their own food.
These are some of the things I have learned so far. But I confess I am far from being fully adjusted. But then again, do we ever fully adjust? Either way, have two or more if definitely an adventure.
One thing I have not learned how to deal with yet, is the ridiculous amount of laundry... I feel like I'm always doing laundry...
But what are your tips to a new mom of two or more?! What have you learned, or not learned yet? Share away! Enlighten us... don't keep your secrets to yourself!
2 comments:
ok...so I'm really not good at a lot of things...but laudry is something I feel I am and I think mostly because right now we don't have a drier, so I have to do laudry quite often so there's not too many clothes to dry out in the sun. So my tip is depending on how much clothing you have do laudry 2-3 times a week depending on your amount of course. I do it early morning. I wake up and put my clothes in the washing machine and let it go, after the kids are fed I hang them...and don't worry about it anymore until later when they are taking a hap and I get to iron and put them away....it keeps me on my toes and we always have clean laundry. I have been behind and it's more work than doing it 2-3 times a week. A little at a time. My mom has a schedule. She washes towels and sheets on tuesdays, white clothes on wednesdays, and colored clothes on thursdays- maybe that works for some people :)
I have also stressed a lot about spending time and playing with my girls and I decided that most of the time they want to play by themselves. So I let them make a mess in the living room and play with whatever toys they want, and then we have a big clean up party afterwards. I noticed they enjoy the time together and alone to be creative and play...and I don't have to be by their side at all times. Of course I still get to play with them, but I don't stress as much as before and I definitely feel better about it.
This is something I learned this week. I don't feel bad about the sick/lazy days anymore. The girls were miserable and then I got sick too. So this past two days all we do is watch cartoons, take medicine and try to eat something. I don't feel bad that we don't have energy to do anything else. The girls takes naps various times of the day because they are too weak to do anything else and I just figured we need to enjoy those days as much as the crazy busy fun ones....
hope those are helpful :) Loved the tips btw Anna :) thanks for keeping this up
I'm going to have to take a look at those meal starters...It's been helping me a ton to have a menu troughout the week and I think that would help even more!
What I like to do is do laundry every single day, even if there isn't very much (which is never the case) and sometimes I have to do more than 1 load a day. I like to do all these things when the kids are napping but sometimes they do not want to nap no matter how hard I try, so if I need to clean, do laundry, etc, I usually put on a movie for them to watch which entertains them for a few minutes. Also making sure they're not hungry or thirsty helps before you start doing all those things so you don't have to stop to feed them or give them juice, so I also usually just leave a small bowl of crackers or something and give them their sippy cups with water/juice. You just gotta keep 'em busy!
I liked what Barbara said of letting them play on their own, I think it's actually really important for them so they don't depend on an adult's imagination all the time, it forces them to be creative and entertain themselves.
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