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It is true when they say that baby number two is a whole lot easier… as a mom you are a whole lot more confident in your abilities, and stress less when baby cries… after all, they won't break! But having baby number two comes with one extra factor that makes it a whole lot harder at the same time… baby number one! With a very busy toddler to cope with at the same time as a newborn baby… well it's no surprise why they call this the hardest job in the world!
The other night I was trying to bath both baby and toddler at the same time… mistake number one! It's fine when dad is there to help – he takes the one and I do the other, but he was working late and I wanted to get at least baby in bed before he got home. I got them both in the bath – well Megan pretty much gets herself in, sitting in the big bath while baby Caitlin sits on her Kango chair in the baby-bath (which sits on the big bath). Caty was quite happy enjoying her bath, so I decided to quickly wash Megan before I took Caty out. Mistake number two!
Now for some reason Megan does not equate bathing with getting clean – either that or she was just in an otherwise mood – and she started yelling at me for trying to wash her. She suddenly let out the most enormous, spine shattering shriek that pierced my grown-up ears, so you can imagine what it was for a tiny baby! Poor Caitlin demonstrated textbook moro reflex, before going purple in the face and letting rip with a scream that could compete with the Concorde breaking the sound barrier! I of course yelled at Megan for shrieking like a banshee (yet another mistake – I was on a roll!), which in turn set her off in floods of tears! So there I was sitting on my knees leaning over the bath, trying to pacify a screaming baby and a yelling drama queen, ready to shout a few choice words myself!
I wrenched poor Caty out of the bath, soaking my skirt in the process (which I had to enjoy stuck to my legs for the next hour while I got her down), as Megan's world fell to pieces while being ignored by Mommy. I took Caty to the bedroom, crying coming full force in stereo, and covered her with a towel, before rushing back to get Meg out the bath, dumping her unceremoniously on the bed and ordering her to get dressed (thank goodness for pull-up nappies!). I finally got Caty dressed and sent Megan to her room to play with “Daddy's toy”, while I spent the best part of the next hour trying to get Caitlin down – thank goodness Daddy arrived home shortly after I settled Megan in her room! (a tip – save a really special toy for this time of day while you are trying to get baby to sleep and need to distract toddler! And of course because it ‘belongs to Daddy' then it's even more special that she gets to play with it!).
Anybody with a toddler will know that one of the hardest things for a toddler to do is to keep quiet! It's just in their nature to be loud and boisterous! Even after explaining over and over that “give me ten minutes of quiet time with baby while I get her down, then I can spend an hour with you before bed. But if you keep coming in and making a noise, then I have to start all over again!” Yet this seems to fall on deaf ears more often than not… The other night after getting Caty down I decided to quickly jump in the shower – with the lights off mind you as the bathroom light would shine right in her face – secure in the knowledge that Megan was the other end of the house with Daddy. No sooner had I got in the water than I heard the bathroom door handle being wrenched off its hinges, door being flung open, light switched on and a declaration of “Mommy, you in the shower!”. Of course this was followed by me begging her quietly to shut the door before you wake Baby Sister (she doesn't have a name according to Megan) and praying that hubby would come take her back to the lounge. Anyway thank goodness she didn't wake baby – what would we do without our white noise CD cranked up full blast?
But of course I wouldn't want to change anything about my two girls! Megan will always be loud and Caty will always have her moments of screaming – maybe a volume control occasionally would be nice! And maybe a time device too… just to stop the clock for an hour a day for some more “me” time (as it is I'm typing this during CSI – the only time I have to myself the whole day!). And while we are at it… an extra pair of arms… self cooking food… a personal page turner… on-site masseuse… *sigh* Dream on, Mommy, dream on…
© Sally Hetherington .
