Going from Two to Three? Piece of Cake!

Some people might tell you that going from zero to one child is the hardest transition to handle.

After that going from one kid to two kids isn't that bad.

Going from two kids to three is much easier. I had a hard time thinking this was possible, but I get it now.Sure, we have one more mouth to feed, one more wardrobe to wash, one more body to clean, etc. Plus it takes us much longer to get out of the house. And, we haven't reached this point yet, but soon Lily will be making a mess of the place with her toys like her older sisters do (sometimes I wonder why I even clean in the first place). But, I've found going from two girls to three hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Here's why:

• I know what to expect now. I'm sure Lily is winding up her curve-ball pitch, but for the most part nothing has come as a surprise to me and Jonathan yet.

• I've loosened up a bit. I know a lot of parents do this with each subsequent child. With the first a couple may take weeks before making their first outing, then maybe a few days with their second. With Lily, we went straight to my parents' from the hospital (sure we had to get the girls, but we didn't wait much longer before heading out of the house). Also, with Lily throwing up once a day (or even more sometimes), I don't freak out as much. Sarah went through the same thing (see bullet above) and I don't worry about her getting what she needs because she is gaining weight and produces plenty of output. I can still be a bit uptight when it comes to caring for the girls (especially when we aren't at home), but I think I'm much better.

• Two out of three still nap. Sarah will give me a nice 1-2 hour afternoon nap while Lily naps maybe 3-6 hours throughout the day. So, I really don't spend much of my day taking care of the needs of three girls at once. I know this will change, but as Lily gets older she won't be quite as needy (she likes to spend a lot of time in our arms when she's awake).

• The older ones play independently. I spent a lot of this morning tending to Lily because of feeding, spitting up, changing, and feeding some more. Abigail and Sarah spent most of that time in their room playing. It was hard doing this for Sarah when Abigail was the only other one. Abigail would get into trouble because there was no one to play with (see Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C).

So by no means am I saying having three girls under the age of 3 1/2 is easy, I'm just saying it isn't as crazy and overwhelming as I thought it would be.