I'm getting really good at this three under three thing.
We go places! How? Well it's tricky, but I plan it out. I take them to storytimes in libraries where the storytime happens in a separate room from which Miss Two cannot easily escape. I pick storytimes that do not offer a craft afterward because I can't help Miss Two do a craft while I entertain the twins. I choose parks that are fenced in, and I park near the entrance. When I'm going somewhere with more wide open spaces like Maymont or Lewis Ginter, I bring along my sister or a friend to help wrangle all the kids. Getting out of the house with all the kids takes serious preparation, but now that I've got the hang of it, I am actually early to things!
We're getting more sleep! Sometimes my little 5-month-old baby guys even sleep through the night! What did I do on those magical nights? Nothing out of the ordinary. The boys share a crib, and we put them to bed between 6pm and 7pm, whenever they start to look tired. Little Guy sweetly sucks his thumb until he falls asleep. Big Guy might fuss for a few minutes, but it usually doesn't take him long to fall asleep either. This is the same thing we do at nap times with the exception that they don't always nap together. It's still difficult to predict exactly when or how long they are going to nap. But bedtime almost always happens together. Anyway, on the magical nights that they both slept all night, I went in to their room and gave them each a dream feed before I went to bed. Then we all slept until 6am! (I know I'm lucky. Please don't hate me.)
They poop less! As newborns, the twins pooped every single time they ate! It was absurd how many diapers and wipes we were going through. Add in a toddler who was still in diapers and it was just too much poop. Now the boys poop every three days or so. And Miss Two is getting better at pooping in the potty! Granted, Big Guy's poops are almost always poosplosions, but they don't even phase me anymore. I've become quite efficient at cleaning up poosplosions.
We're about to be in a sweet spot where Miss Two will be totally potty trained, and the twins will be sitting up. I will be able to put them all in the triple wagon and take them to the park. It'll be so great. Then they'll start crawling, and I'll have a whole new host of challenges. But it's all good. Some days I wake up without any patience, and I go to sleep knowing that I could've done better. But those days are fewer and farther between. Most days I go to sleep feeling like I really accomplished something.
I hope all you other parents reading this are feeling good about your accomplishments, too. Sometimes I read too many parenting articles and mommy war blogs, and I feel like no matter what I do I'm failing. But that's a vicious lie. We're all just doing the best we can. We can't get it right all the time.
And now, here's a joke I think about all the time:
