I worry about having 3 because I’m going crazy with just the two I have, but I’m hoping the large age gap will make things easier. Having a 6 month old and 2 year old at the same time was hard!! At least this time around I can make the oldest carry the diaper bag! Haha.
This is my hope too. I am not delusional, I know my life is going to be insane. But I feel like it is so much easier to reason with a 6 & 4 year old than a barely 2 year old when mommy needs 5 extra minutes to finish with the baby before she can make lunch, help you find that toy, etc, etc, etc. And then plus the fact that they really are quite self-sufficient with many things. By next summer, so long as the fridge snack shelf is stocked and water bottles are full I'm pretty confident they'll be able to keep themselves busy for hours in the backyard if and when needed. I'm sure they could in the house too, but does anyone else find that they're kids are more likely to play independently without interruption outside vs. inside? I never get called on for anything from the backyard whereas in the house they are on me all the time for things.
For me, going from 2 to 3 wasn't that big of a change (but my oldest was 6 and a great helper). When we started doing foster care (which came with its own set if challenges) having 4 didn't seem that much different than 3. I've obviously had some practice at parenting 4, but I'm not worried about the transition this time.
@DuchessOfCambridge yes to the water challenge! I’m good at school, but at home I fail epically and feel awful because of it!
@megsb615 Rule of thumb for water intake: take your weight, divide it by two. That’s how many ounces of water you should drink. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should be drinking 75 ounces of water a day.
@fatmonica I hear a lot of mixed things about it. My friend with 3 said the third rocked their world. They were fine with 2 and then they were outnumbered. But I have heard 3 to 4 isn't that bad. I read an article that 3 is harder than any other amount (more or less). Okay, so I read the title of the article 😂 and it probably wasn't a reliable source, but still. Lol
My fear is May itself. The girls came early so we are more than likely looking at April for the baby to arrive. May is the last month of school though. And it’s always busy. End of school projects, programs, finals, and parties.
Ivy: July 2010 | Stella: Dec 2012 | BFP#3: MMC at 11Wk's, July 2017 | Wyatt: April 2019 | BFP#5: Twin Girls due Sept 2020
@megsb615 I've heard the same as @mrskoz428 but I've also read when you are pregnant, depending on your body, it should be somewhere between 8-10 10 oz glasses a day, so 80-100 oz. I usually shoot for 100 and rarely make it, but I usually get at least 80 which is more than my half my weight in oz.
@megsb615 I've heard what @DuchessOfCambridge did: 80-100oz. You definitely need more while pregnant. I'm breastfeeding still so need even more than that. The lbs/2 # definitely wouldn't be enough for many of us.
When I was breastfeeding I drank my weight in ounces each day, and I still try to do almost that, but I’m usually not quite able to get there these days. Although just this past week water finally started being appealing again!
@eatinwatermelonseeds the good news is that you can have your eggs retrieved without tubes. I don’t know what those other issues you described were, but I’m sure an RE could tell you if it disqualified you. The other option is surrogacy which pays REALLY REALLY well and as a person under 35 with 2 live births you would be a great candidate. I hate being pregnant (and am 2 old now). But dude $50-75k is a ton of money for just growing a baby. I’m growing this one for free for DH 😂
@eatinwatermelonseeds the good news is that you can have your eggs retrieved without tubes. I don’t know what those other issues you described were, but I’m sure an RE could tell you if it disqualified you. The other option is surrogacy which pays REALLY REALLY well and as a person under 35 with 2 live births you would be a great candidate. I hate being pregnant (and am 2 old now). But dude $50-75k is a ton of money for just growing a baby. I’m growing this one for free for DH 😂
2 babies and maybe we could afford a down payment on a house 😂😂
@DuchessOfCambridge and @kvh22 Oh wow. I definitely need to do a water challenge because I’m no where near drinking that much water. I feel like I do pretty decent on drinking it throughout the day though, but not that good.
@chloe97, thank you for the advice! If I do anything I think it'll just be the egg donation. And I really don't want to be paid. I also don't think I could do surrogacy, personally.
@megsb615 Oh Crap! Potty Training is actually going pretty well! We just finished up day 2. So it looked like this: Day 1: - She held her pee for 4 hours until she finally started peeing on the floor, I swooped her onto the potty, she stopped peeing immediately and went back to holding her pee. - We had lunch, at the end of the meal while she was still in the high chair she said "go pee pee" so I wrapped it up, put her down and 1-2 minutes later she started doing the dance and started peeing (on the floor). This time she had to go so bad she kept peeing when I put her on the potty. Hooray! - Another pee that started on the floor and finished in the potty. - Final pee that started on the floor, and she stopped when I put her on the potty. I told her to keep pushing and she RESTARTED the pee and finished her pee in the potty! - Final pee was after bath and before bed and completely in the potty. - No poop. Ugh! Day 2: EVERY SINGLE PEE IN THE POTTY and nothing on the floor!!! She totally understands peeing now; it's so great. We just prompt her to have a sit and "try to go pee" and she has done it every single time today. She even self initiated at least twice. - Unfortunately she pooped in her nap diaper so we're trying to figure out what to do about that tomorrow. I'll update how that goes in a day or two.
Over all, I highly recommend the Oh Crap! method for people who need to potty train. Just know there will be potty on your floor the first few days (we have hard floors downstairs). The author recommends training between 20-30 months. DD will be 24 months in two weeks, and I am hoping we hit the sweet spot for training. We just need to get this poop situation figured out!
@poshspice Wow, thank you for that info! Im actually terrified for when we're going to have to train my daughter. I'll look into the method. Im also really nervous though about DD regressing when hopefully 2nd baby arrives. I saw a lot of this happen with the ladies on my previous BMB.
@poshspice we used that method with DD1 and it worked FABULOUSLY. Like, she was fully trained within 2 weeks and I can count the number of accidents she's had since on one hand. I remember being pretty frustrated after day three though, so you're doing really well if she's peeing on the potty after day 2! I'm planning on using the (hopefully quieter) week between New Years and back to school to potty train DD2 too. I can't wait for a few months off from diapers.
@expandcontract I think I have an ebook version of it floating around somewhere I can email to you if you want to read a copy of it. I kind of disliked the woman who wrote it... she doesn't actually seem to have any legit qualifications, but is really condescending and negative about every other potty training method. But, it works.
DD1: June 2014 - VBM4lyfe DD2: October 2016 DC3: coming May 2019
@poshspice So DD2 has been "potty trained" since August. Except she knows how to use the potty so well, and is rotten, that she deliberately refuses to poop in the potty and goes in her pants almost *all the time*. She'll typically poop on the potty once or twice at school (no accidents there at all actually), but she flat out refuses at home. I'll put her in the potty and minutes after I take her off she poops her pants. I honestly don't even know what to do. DH is over the poop in the clothes so he insists she has to be in pull ups at home, which I know doesn't help. Basically don't be surprised if #2 doesn't happen as easily...especially if you have a stubborn child like mine 🙄
@poshspice Thats amazing that she’s picking up on it so fast! DS seems to be so stubborn about even sitting on the toilet, but in his defense, maybe he really doesn’t need to go. I think you’ve convinced me to order the book. Maybe we can work on it over a long weekend. I don’t understand why he’ll sometimes potty at daycare, but not at home. I guess it helps seeing all his friends using the potty too. 🤷🏼♀️
Re: Weekly Randoms 10/29
This is my hope too. I am not delusional, I know my life is going to be insane. But I feel like it is so much easier to reason with a 6 & 4 year old than a barely 2 year old when mommy needs 5 extra minutes to finish with the baby before she can make lunch, help you find that toy, etc, etc, etc. And then plus the fact that they really are quite self-sufficient with many things. By next summer, so long as the fridge snack shelf is stocked and water bottles are full I'm pretty confident they'll be able to keep themselves busy for hours in the backyard if and when needed. I'm sure they could in the house too, but does anyone else find that they're kids are more likely to play independently without interruption outside vs. inside? I never get called on for anything from the backyard whereas in the house they are on me all the time for things.
this made me laugh so hard
@megsb615 Rule of thumb for water intake: take your weight, divide it by two. That’s how many ounces of water you should drink. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should be drinking 75 ounces of water a day.
BFP: 8/20/2018 - EDD 5/4/2019
Day 1: - She held her pee for 4 hours until she finally started peeing on the floor, I swooped her onto the potty, she stopped peeing immediately and went back to holding her pee.
- We had lunch, at the end of the meal while she was still in the high chair she said "go pee pee" so I wrapped it up, put her down and 1-2 minutes later she started doing the dance and started peeing (on the floor). This time she had to go so bad she kept peeing when I put her on the potty. Hooray!
- Another pee that started on the floor and finished in the potty.
- Final pee that started on the floor, and she stopped when I put her on the potty. I told her to keep pushing and she RESTARTED the pee and finished her pee in the potty!
- Final pee was after bath and before bed and completely in the potty.
- No poop. Ugh!
Day 2: EVERY SINGLE PEE IN THE POTTY and nothing on the floor!!! She totally understands peeing now; it's so great. We just prompt her to have a sit and "try to go pee" and she has done it every single time today. She even self initiated at least twice.
- Unfortunately she pooped in her nap diaper so we're trying to figure out what to do about that tomorrow. I'll update how that goes in a day or two.
Over all, I highly recommend the Oh Crap! method for people who need to potty train. Just know there will be potty on your floor the first few days (we have hard floors downstairs). The author recommends training between 20-30 months. DD will be 24 months in two weeks, and I am hoping we hit the sweet spot for training. We just need to get this poop situation figured out!
@expandcontract I think I have an ebook version of it floating around somewhere I can email to you if you want to read a copy of it. I kind of disliked the woman who wrote it... she doesn't actually seem to have any legit qualifications, but is really condescending and negative about every other potty training method. But, it works.
DD1: June 2014 - VBM4lyfe
DD2: October 2016
DC3: coming May 2019