Of Being A Mum Of Two

As far as preparations go, welcoming a new bundle of joy can be very exciting and overwhelming. Now that the lil’ bubba has finally arrived excitement started to fade as reality slowly bit me: I am now officially a mum of two, a toddler and a newborn.

Running on two-three hours of sleep the first few days was something I’ve anticipated and surprisingly, I managed to have energy despite being sleepless. My major concern aside from being sleepless and tired: Will my toddler Gabbie get jealous of her baby brother? If so how can my husband and I manage it?

Achie Gabbie with 4 day old Shoti Juro.

Luckily, to our surprise she has been a very loving Achie (older sister) to her Shoti (baby brother). She likes being involved when it comes to taking care of her brother. She likes to po-po (carry) him, assist in changing nappies, wipe his laway (its actually excess milk on his face), and doing other little things as long as it involves spending time with her brother. So I realized it’s not hard to take care of a toddler and a newborn after all. Establishing my milk supply and all the breastfeeding hurdle was another thing I focused on, oh how I prayed so fervently night after night for things to get better and easier and it did. So everything seems to run smoothly for the first two weeks of being a mum of two. Then, crankiness happened.

Achie G loves kissing her Shoti J, here at one week old.

You see I’m very nocturnal (as it is obvious on how I can relate to & love owls) so waking up in the middle of the night to feed and change nappies were easy for me but my body tells me otherwise. Crankiness is inevitable when one is tired. I get cranky when I’m hungry more than when I lack sleep but in this case, it’s the other way around. I feel guilty at times whenever I scold or spank my Gabbie when she intentionally mocks me while I’m all caught up taking care of her brother. It’s hard I tell ya, when one cries, the other follows and you just end up crying yourself! But as the days passed, we’ve slowly created a rhythm of our own so I can manage to give quality time to both my kids and still keep my sanity. So you ask, how do I manage being a mum to a newborn and toddler? The secret: I’m no superwoman and I stopped multitasking.

Check out my full article on New Beginnings as I share my tips on how to manage being a mum of a newborn and a toddler.

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You see motherhood is really hard and involves a lot of sacrifice. Just because its the second time around doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easier nor is it different altogether. Some things maybe familiar while others maybe totally new. For me everything felt familiar but at the same time new and exciting. As of present I’m still learning how to dodge getting peed while changing nappies, indeed it is different to have a baby boy this time around but yet again I feel very nostalgic that my firstborn is no longer a baby!

Ah, the joys of motherhood. As I always say, things will get better.

🙂

Got any mum stories to share? I’d love to know what it is so leave a comment!