3’s A Crowd

I’m sure some are wondering if life with three is overwhelming. Well, to be honest, I was wondering that myself. Brian’s mom kept the oldest two for a week after Flora was born so I could have time to rest and bond with our new little one. The night they got back they were wired and it left me a little shell shocked. All that night I had nightmares about how hard this was going to be. But each time I woke to feed the baby I started praying fervently for God’s grace to make it through the next day.

And you know what? God answered! The day went along fairly smoothly. After all, I had only added one rather sleepy little child to the mix. There were meals in the freezer and the house was clean (at least it started that way). As the week went on, I was very aware of how the Lord was giving me the strength needed for each day – from warm weather so the kids could play outside, to letting Flora sleep for 7 hours the night I needed to get up early and help Brian get to work.

It’s a lot of fun to watch the Lance and Ivy interact with their new sister. Everything I do with the baby holds some fascination and prompts new types of play. Just today, while I was feeding Flora, I noticed Lance was holding his toy monkey a little under his shirt. I asked what he was doing and he turned away with an embarrassed smile. Then as I burped Flora he started patting his monkey on the back too then stuck the monkey back under his shirt when I resumed feeding.

The kids have turned out to be better helpers than I would have expected from a 2 and 1 year old.

Lance loves to hold the baby and sees it as his duty to take care of  her, no matter how loud she cries or how tired he might be. Here he was nodding off to sleep while trying to keep her quiet with a pacifier.

It took Ivy a little longer to develop any type of mothering instinct.  She is fascinated by the pacifier, however, and loves to give it to Flora regardless if she’s happy, crying or sleeping. Fortunately Grammy gave her a doll for Christmas that came with a pacifier and it spares Flora some of the “love.”

We are doing infant potty training with Flora – which, thanks to Brian’s help over the holidays, has been going quite well. The other day I saw Lance “potty” his monkey, telling it to “pee pee” and then making the appropriate sound. I’ve seen Ivy do the same thing with her doll so maybe the idea will catch on all around!

Overall it has been a good transition with the added bonus of having a beautiful little girl to love. Flora is a very good baby which helps a lot. Just last night she slept from 9pm to 7am, she doesn’t cry much and it thrills me again and again as I look at her and marvel at how cute and little she is.

We are memorizing Psalm 127 right now and it say that “Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is His reward.” I really feel like I have won some sort of prize as I look at my three wonderful children and amazing husband. Growing up I always wanted to be a wife and a mother and that dream has been realized many fold. Praise the Lord!