Working with 2 children

LittleButSep2008

Hi, I am a little nervous about going back to work next week. I have two children. One is 2.5 years and the baby is 7 weeks. Is it going to be much harder with two compared to one?  Any tips and advice is appreciated. TIA

Whoo

I have no advice. I go back Dec. 1 and have 2 children now too.  I am scared to death about how I am going to split my time even more now.  I have these aspirations of being incredibly organized like planning my dinners and lunches for the week on the weekend so to avoid mid week scrambles but we shall see. 

luvmagoldn

I have twins now and am expecting a third.  Organization is absolutely the key.  It doens't mean that you won't experience some bumps along the way but it helps A LOT in terms of keeping stress levels down.

I prep as much as I can the night before - packing the diaper bag, getting my lunch ready, etc.  I even created a check list for myself that lists everything I need to do in the morning (without it I was forgetting at least one thing every morning).

As for meals, I plan menus for the whole week.  Dh gets home before me so he starts dinner but before his schedule changed I would cook the night before (after the boys went to bed) so all we had to do was reheat at dinner time.  That was a life saver.

You will find a rhythm that works for you.  Try to have patience and cut yourself some slack while you are figuring it all out!

alisonada

I'm also worried about how hard this will be! When I first went back to work with DD it was so hectic, I can't imagine how it will be having a 3 month old and a 21 month old...

LittleButSep2008

Did I  mention we are planning on moving too! I am just stressing already. I am trying to start packing and xmas shopping now, I need to spend less time on the nest

skittles_123

Extreme organizational and teamwork skills is neccessary. If you get that down, it is pretty simple.

You have to get used to do even more laundry. That is one thing that was difficult for me to adjust to. I practically have to do a load a day to keep up with my family, or sometimes if I skip a day, I can do an extra load during the weekends. Crockpot meals are the best. Especially since when I get home my dd is ready to bf, so I don't always have time to fix a meal as soon as I get home.

Getting things ready the night before helps as well. But, that is one thing I had done with just one, so it wasn't much of a change for me this time.

jlw2505

My girls are 21 months apart and what the others has said about organization and planning ahead is the key.  I do almost all of the drop off and pick ups due to where my DH's office is located.  He gets home before us though so he starts getting dinner ready.  We try and do as much dinner prep the night before so it doesn't take us too long when we do get home, typically at around 5pm.  We clean up what needs to be cleaned up and put away after dinner but often save the dishes until the girls are sleeping so we can have some nice family time during the week.  I prep all of our bags the night before, we make the morning bottle when we make the bedtime bottle.  DH and I make our lunches for work the night before along with the dinner prep as I already said.  We decided to hire a cleaning person that comes once a month which helps.  We do laundry on the weekend or spread it out over the week depending on what is going on.  We hire a lawn service during the summer.  We order our groceries online and they get delived Mondays.  Anything to save time.  Organization really is key.  It will take a little bit of time to get into the groove of it but you will.  Things like sick kids will happen and you will get thrown off but it all works out.