Adjustments
For me, I’d say it was a bigger adjustment after Canaan was born (being our first) than it has been with Emmaus. That said, there still have been plenty of crazy moments and things to adjust to. I look at large families with many children and think that it can be only one of two things: The parents are superhuman or (hopefully) more likely they slowly adjust with every new kid. Our ratio of parents to children has gone from 2:1 to 1:1. And if one of us is gone the ratio further diminishes to 1:2. It’s in those 1:2 moments when one is peeing his pants while the other is crying and badly needs a diaper change that I wonder what on earth is going on! But if that’s as crazy as it’s been I think that we’re doing alright. Canaan has made the adjustments easy for us, he takes Emmaus’ diapers to the garbage without question and is generally a great gofer.
For those of you with kids, how were the adjustments when you had 2 or 3 or more children?
Emmaus chilling on the couch
On this day..
- Just in Time - 2007
- Relax - 2006
- Christmas Newsletter - 2005
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I think I am the worst person to study as a control group because I never had 1 baby. I started with 2 so anything after that was cake. I will say that two 2 year olds was the most challenging thing I have ever been through in my life. I have heard that going from 1 to 2 is the hardest. Going from 2 to 3 was easy because I only had one tiny one for the first time. And you are right, bigger kids can be great gofers. Once you have older kids on your hands it gets easier still, they love to help out and can also entertain themselves for a bit.
Going from 2 to 3 was definitely the easiest – not sure why.. Maybe that the older 2 could entertain each other, but 3 to 4 was much harder than expected!
Obviously it depends on the baby. I know when we brought Alora home, it was really good until she became colicy around 4 weeks old. Than from 7-9pm one of us would do the walks around the block while the other parent stayed with Rachel while she slept. Thank goodness Alora was a spring baby! Rachel adjusted well but I think the hardest thing for me to sort out was getting them out of the car…like which one do I take out first? Do I bring one child into the house and leave the other unattended for 3 secs to do this? Adding Benjamin to the mix has been great…I think the more you add the easier it gets because, as the other guests posted, the older ones can entertain themselves. Sure I still have moments were one is sitting on the potty- unrolling the T.Paper, one is crying and the rest are waiting for me to wash their hands faces…but it’s ALL GOOD!
It is an adjustment at first, but then it seems to get extremely easy once you figure everything out.
For me, it was not so bad. I have really young siblings so the adjustment from no kids to one was simple. (my littlest sis is only 4 yrs older than Jon) With the addition of Jake, things got a little more hectic and I had to learn to juggle a bit. Jon was incredibly mellow so that made the transition easier. After that, it really just seemed like another name to throw in the mix. I’ve never been one to have my kids on really strict schedules, they all learn to go with the flow more or less. PLUS, the bigger guys do tend to help out.
Oh, by the way, I think Emmaus looks JUST like mommy! He’s so cute!
I agree with the popular vote above — 2-3 was easier than 1-2 (and we will not be finding out 3-4). But, no matter how you look at it, it gets harder as they enter that preschool-grade school age. Each kid seems to be total opposite of the other. The sibling fights, tag-team naughtiness — oh, what fun!
But, at this young age, you find you get used to a certain amount of choas. You accept there’s only so much of you and your huband — and you get better at prioritizing. You definitely figure out that choosing your “battles” is key! But accepting the choas – and the reality that life will never be the same as when there was only 1 (or none at all) – is what I think is the main thing.
REGARDLESS — I WOULD NEVER (never, never!) TRADE IT fOR THE WORLD! :-D
…after two you run out of hands!