Bringing Home Baby

Hi Everyone! For the next few days or so I am going to have several guest blogger posts for you to read while I am out having my little girl, and recovering. I truly hope you enjoy reading each and every one!

Today I wanted to share my advice on bringing home baby #2, since Kathryn is oh-so-close!

First, let me preface this by saying that we have four young children (ages 7, 5, 3 and 1) and each time that I was ready to give birth to my next child, I had a little bit of fear that my older children would feel less-loved, since I would not have the time to devote to them as I had before. This is a normal feeling, but the advice that my parents’ gave to me was so helpful:

When a new baby comes, think of your love as a light and your children as your candles. The light doesn’t grow dimmer when another light comes into the room- it only becomes brighter and easier to see. Your love will grow and you will have room in your heart for all of your children, whether you have one or twenty- it will grow each time.

Now, onto my tips for Kathryn:

1. Make dinner ahead of time (freeze as many meals as you can!) Trust me that you will not be wanting to cook at night when you are exhausted because earlier in the day, when you finally got your baby to bed (at 5:00 am!) your other child walked out and said “Hi, Mom!”

2. Clean another day – Cleaning went from high on my list to pretty low on my list. I still kept things pretty organized (here is my series on organizing your home in 40 days) because I had to stay organized to stay sane, but I didn’t keep things as clean as I normally would during those first few weeks.

3. Keep it simply, silly! Don’t try to do too much at once. I potty trained each of our kids BEFORE our next baby came. They were each one year old when they were trained and I did it about two months before our baby came. This was a way to have one less thing on my plate (& one less expense) when the baby came- no diapers! (here is my post on potty training in three days (a 3 day series including potty training hurdles, potty training boys & girls, and potty training at night )... and here is the e-book that I wrote to teach you how to potty train in a weekend).

4. Have ‘once-a-month-special-nights‘ with your older kids. Our kids can not WAIT for this night to come around!

5. The BEST advice that I have for Kathryn is to just remember: “This, too, shall pass.” Many a nights I stayed awake with our baby while our three older boys slept. For almost 8 weeks she was completely backwards with her time (asleep all day, up all night). I did all of the things to reverse this, but it didn’t work until her body-clock switched. Luckily, our kids stay in bed until 7:00 because of this trick to teach your kids to sleep in later, so when I would get her to bed around 4:00 am, I would get about three hours of sleep per night. My husband would let me nap in the evenings, while he took care of the baby (our older kids go to bed at 7:00) until around midnight, when I would wake up to handle the night shift. Now, she is one and all of that is just a memory… The hard part doesn’t last long, but neither do the great parts (falling asleep on you, being content just being held all day long, those tiny little yawns that make my heart melt)…

Becky loves her husband and her four wonderful children! She is a teacher, play therapist, author and blogger. She writes at Your Modern Family about raising kids, saving money and living in an organized home. She also writes at Blogging on the Side, a page devoted to helping bloggers grow their blog while keeping faith and family first. Becky is the author of Potty Train in a Weekend and How to be a Stay at Home Mom on One Income. You can visit her on Facebook, Twitter, or on her Pinterest Page. She and her family live in North Carolina and love spending time together: playing games, taking bike rides and having fun! She is excited to share her tips with you!