What's it like with three?

I get asked a lot what it is like with three kids. Mostly I answer briefly, "busy but good". I haven't found the transition from two to three too bad. However I found going from one to two children a real shock. Maybe that was mostly because John didn't sleep much for the first 6 months, and so I was a grumpy, miserable zombie for that time! I wouldn't say Daniel sleeps much(he only slept in 40 minute slots after 1am today), but I'm much happier going to bed at 8:30 to cope with it, than I was when I had John. Perhaps I'm also better at the "In a moment" comments, and Joanna and John are more practiced at waiting for what they want. However when Daniel is crying my stress levels go up a lot, and I run around like a stressed headless chicken until I've done enough to sort the others out, so I can sort him out.

Daniel has two days with just me and him, which are a real blessing. It's lovely to be able to concentrate on him, rather than just deal with his physical needs. Those days are Tuesday and Thursday, so my "days off" are nicely spread. It also means that if I have a bad day then I know the next day should be different.

The other differences this time is that I have more lovely mummy friends. Also my day is more structured with the school run, so I don't say goodbye to Mark at 8:30, and then have to figure out how to fill the whole day until 6pm.

You can tell things are easier this time, as we're still thinking about number 4, which shouldn't be too far away. In fact we've heard that we've been accepted to adopt, which will be fun. He's older than our current kids, but then he is a student from church :-)