I have recently made a switch. I was blogging almost exclusively for the homeschooling blog at families.com but now I have switched to baby! This switch has prompted some reflection on the last year of my life as a mother of infants who are now toddlers, a toddler who is now a “big girl”, a “big boy” who is now a ‘young man’ and a ‘young lady’ who is now a tween. Thinking about what I might like to share in the baby blog, I started thinking about the last few years of life.
Twins Come In a Set You Know
If you’ve read any of my blogs, you likely know that I am a very busy mother with twins. I have other children too–five to be exact–but somehow the twins have taken over the life we once knew. When I was pregnant with the twins, it drastically changed what I was able to do. . .twins are just different. Then when they were born, it drastically changed our household. . .because there are two instead of just one. When I started blogging here, the twins were one year old. They were not walking or talking; just crawling. Now they are a babbling pair of constant motion and activity. Life is good.
Everything for a Season
One reason life is good is because nothing stays the same. The massive sleep deprivation, the uncomfortable pregnancy, all of it is gone now, replaced with the constant babbling and giggling of our delightful little girls. I am so thankful that twins get easier, and yet I miss the times when we just held them watching; somewhat awed by their little sleeping faces.
My days used to consist of changing, feeding, burping, feeding, burping, and changing. If I wasn’t doing one of those three, I was feeding one of the older three. It was. . .as you can likely imagine. . .exhausting. I won’t even begin to broach bed time, late nights or the wee hours of the morning. Suffice it to say that when you are nursing twins, you are an all hour milk shake bar. Life is good.
Swinging From the Chandeliers
Now we are in the trenches of terrible twos as my third daughter hasn’t quite gotten over hers and my twins are just starting theirs. For sure, I can expect temper tantrums, crying, power struggles, and unreasonable behavior over something I have completely no control over. And the joys of potty training–and two at a time! Our house resembles a zoo with me playing zoo keeper. I frequently have found myself in a situation where I prevent one disaster from one twin only to turn around and find the other causing a different disaster. If we had chandeliers. . .I am sure I’d regularly find someone swinging from them. Life is good.
Life IS Good
We all know that there’s nothing better in the world than the first time your baby smiles at you or the first time they say a word. For sure, even in our frustrations, I don’t know of any parent who wouldn’t say that it is all worth it.
So my advice to new moms who are struggling to get just that one more hour of sleep or even just one evening out without the baby, I must tell you that life is good. The trials of this phase in your life will change into new trials. Parenthood is a marathon and babyhood is just the beginning. When you’re tempted to complain about how hard it is you can take comfort in knowing we’ve been there. . .and that life is good.
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