Womb to Bloom - Maternity & Beyond

Morning comes early at my house. My eight month old is a morning person, and he likes to get up when the sun starts peeking in through his window. Most mornings, I awake to the hungry screams of a baby who wants to be changed and fed immediately. Some mornings, however, I awake to the sounds of giggling and playing. I lay in bed just a little longer, savoring the sweet sounds coming from the monitor, with a smile on my face. I like those mornings.

My two-year old daughter is a night owl. We struggle every night to get her to stay in bed, now that she sleeps in a “big girl bed.” We've tried every thing from sitting beside her until she's almost asleep, to bribing her with presents and convincing her that her bed was a special “princess bed,” complete with a Disney Princess comforter. After about the fourth trip upstairs to tuck her back into bed, she will finally fall asleep for the night.

Despite all the bedtime shenanigans, she still manages to get up before my seven-year old. He likes to sleep in. This happens to work out really well for me, since this year we are home schooling him. Most mornings he gets up by 8:30 a.m., even before his alarm clock. By that time, I have already fed and dressed both of the babies, had my shower and breakfast, and gotten the little guy into bed for his first nap of the day.

My two youngest share a bedroom. (This way, my seven-year-old has a room all to himself when he decides to pull some major attitude and needs a time out. I had no idea that mouthing back started so early.) My little guy takes a nap almost every three hours on the button. He likes to eat and play for two hours before going down for a one hour nap. Naptime for my daughter is already hit-or-miss. Gone are the days when I could put her to bed at 1 o'clock each afternoon and count on a four-hour nap.

I have my hands full with my kiddos. Sometimes, I marvel at the fact that I haven't lost my sanity – yet. I attribute that to naptime. We have a standing rule in our house: if both babies are sleeping (oh, miracle of miracles) at the same time, my seven-year-old has to spend an hour of quiet time in his room. I don't care if he reads, plays on the computer or his Game Boy, or takes a nap, as long as I get an hour of peace and quiet in the house.

That hour of peace and quiet is sacred. It's my chance to catch up on emails, check out the next lesson we will be working on, eat my lunch, wash and fold some laundry, write or work on my children's books. I always make the mistake of logging on to my instant messenger. It's my own fault when I am bombarded with messages from my husband, my sister, my sister-in-law or my best friend, and how can I ignore them? That wouldn't be very polite.

Soon, I am off on some tangent, looking at baby pictures on Flickr or some some video on YouTube. Before I know it, I have gotten nothing done, and it's time to get back to school. Inevitably, one of the babies wakes up after an all-too-short nap, and we take a break from our lesson.

That is why I am sitting at my computer at 10:42 p.m. It's the only uninterrupted time I have to get non-kid-related things done. Oh, wait. Is that the baby crying? Scratch that. It is definitely not uninterrupted. If there is one thing that I have learned from juggling three kids, a writing career, a home, and home schooling, it's that naptime is never long enough to get anything done.