Hey Lovelies,
When I was a mum of 3, I thought life was so busy. I had no idea what was coming. Now, I know better. More often than not, there’s more surviving than thriving happening, especially these first few months with a newborn. What with balancing naps, mealtimes, bonding with older kids, old routine before the baby, school activities (when school is in session), plus breaking up squabbles. But there are times when I know that, ‘I’ve got this!’
Today is one of such days, hence I decided to stop procrastinating and work on this blog post that ought to have been published long before now.
The biggest struggle that I have right now as a mum of four would be managing my day to day life by ensuring that I’m consistently pre-planning our schedules.
It’s not without challenges but no parenthood journey ever is. There’s a lot to juggle with four kids, and the days often pass by in a blur of chaos, noise and constant hustle and bustle. I’ve learnt to embrace the chaos when I can, and shun it at other times.
So here goes a typical day in my life lately; (It’s not always precise to the later)
5:30 am – Alarm goes off (… Don’t ask me why. I want to still get used to the wake period when I go back to work). But I find myself turning it off always, because it’s usually of no use ringing. Either I am already awake nursing the baby, or if I’m not, then I get to be woken up by her demands to be nursed shortly after.
6:20 am – I brush my teeth, take my bath and drink a cup of tea with few slices of bread or egg toast or something similar.
7:00am- Bath time done, I get to do my quiet time with God, and sort out breakfast for the family. The kids are always still fast asleep at this time, so I basically fix up something for hubz, depending on his preference, then I sterilize baby’s bottles and set up the washing machine if there’s power supply. If not, it gets hand washed. In this case, I would usually share the laundry among my help and two older kids as part of their morning chores, or send out some to be dry cleaned as the case may be.
7:50am- Baby girl wakes up to be nursed or bottle fed and bathed. After that, she stays awake for a couple of hours. On her good days, she allows everyone to cuddle her, but there are days when she won’t have anyone else, neither will she want to be dropped. She just wants to be clingy to me alone.
9:50am- 12:30pm – Baby girl sleeps for a longer period of time and gives me room to get some blog work or freelance done, as the case may be.
12:30pm- 3:00pm – Short bursts of sleep and wake cycles where I try to apply the rule of, ‘Sleep when the baby sleeps.’ It works most of the time. Even my older kids try to cooperate more or less. I also get lunch ready right about now. And if you were guessing, – Yes ! I outsource help as much as I can. I just have to.
Are you tired yet? Because I am !
3:00pm – 5:00pm – I try to boost my productivity, while working with my older kids to keep them meaningfully engaged. We check that off our list before they run off to play with the new baby. The excitement of having a new baby hasn’t worn off yet. I get to do any other stuff that I haven’t checked off my to-do list for the day. But of course, I hardly get to finish any. The demands that come with a new baby are real, as well as endless.
9:00pm – The end is near, but not quite. We’ve still got a couple more hours of diaper changes, catnaps, and what have you, before we finally call it a night.
12:00am – We finally call it a night. Calling it a night doesn’t mean sleeping through the night, it only means that we get to nurse and sleep back after every feeding, more like dream feeding. At this point, I’m so exhausted and frazzled that I can barely keep my eyes open. So, I just succumb to the cozy hands of sleep and retire for the meantime, knowing that a couple of hours later will have me feeding the baby again.
3:00am – 4:00am – Another bout of dream feeding, going down, with diaper change or even a full blown change depending on the circumstance.
And there goes a rough snippet of what my day has been like since the baby’s arrival.
The days are very short and the weeks shorter. My kids are growing up quickly and the days are flying by. So far, it’s been a jolly ride on some days and not so jolly on others.
While it has been the most challenging season of my life, it’s been quite rewarding to see my 4 kids growing into these amazing mini me’s.
Mama, how do you thrive on a daily basis with your kids? I’d love to know. Pray tell !
XOXO
Yours Truly
Nikimandi.
