How do you moms of babies get anything done?

**lwlynch** · 08-12-2009, 05:40 PM

I am a mother of two 12 and 18 i have recently at the age of 48 adopted a 1 yr old.. i advise use of a portacrib and plenty of gates.. i actually bought a play yard from walmart for 60 bucks.. couldnt use it as a pen thing, cause mine shook it till it rocked over. so we use it to close off the door ways.. he plays in the living room and dining room . I just do work in whatever area he is in..
always remember to enjoy babies, what doesnt get done today.. will (I promise you) will be there tomorrow...
hope you get a minute..

**cab54** · 08-13-2009, 01:24 PM

I have read the title of this thread many times before posting here. I have been thinking to myself "Boy, that's the $64,000 question, isn't it?" (Remembering back to when I have babies OR when I have cared for relatives' babies more recently).

At first I felt like I was NEVER going to get anything done, especially since my first one slept only about 4-6 hrs. in a 24 hour period. As a newborn! (NO exaggeration, I swear, ask my sister)

When he was 2-1/2 mos old I went back to work, too. Yikes.

Louise (lwlynch) is right. It will always be there tomorrow.

**cab54** · 08-13-2009, 02:24 PM

Oh, and if your DH/SO complains about mess/dinner/his favorite blue shirt not being clean........

JUST take whatever time you DO have to do the things that HE would notice. Pick your battles, in other words. Don't try to keep the house like you used to, just make it LOOK as though you did something (My trick is to pick up the biggest part of the mess, run the vaccuum very quickly over just the living areas if the house and then run some pine sol (or a very aromatic cleaner) in the downstairs sink with HOT water and let the smell permeate the house, then let it run down the drain After you wipe down the kitchen and bathroom VERY QUICKLY with it.

Don't try to make it perfect. This makes it LOOK (and smell) like you've been cleaning all day. They'll wonder how you do it! (I still do this when company is coming and the place is a sty.) It takes all of 20 minutes, TOPS. Plus, while you're 'cleaning', you can have a load of DH's favorite clothes going in the washer.

Use the crockpot for dinner, whenever you can. You can get it going in the morning, or the baby's first naptime, and it will be done at night. If you have a breadmaker, use this too, for fresh bread to go with. If you don't have either of these, borrow them from a relative or something. Ask Mom or MIL or Sis.

**zakity** · 08-13-2009, 05:02 PM

Ugh... I remember those days. My three are 2 years apart. My oldest is 2 years and 10 days older than the twins. And, I started working part time at night the day the twins turned 7 weeks old.

For dinners, I would cut up stuff (carrots, celery, etc) all day long, 5 minutes at a time, and toss it in a bowl in the fridge. The next morning, I would toss it in the crockpot with some sort of meat and start cutting up stuff for tomorrow's dinner. That crockpot was a lifesaver.

I did it the opposite way of Cab54. If DH said anything, it became his chore. If he thought he could do it better, I let him do it. He quit complaining really fast. It wasn't easy to do things with the three of them.

Also, whoever said about having them help, best suggestion ever! I did that. I didn't have to worry about what they were doing because they were right there with me. Things did take forever to get done, but they all were really proud of themselves for helping. I now have three boys who work hard.

**New-mom-to-be** · 08-15-2009, 09:40 AM

I can't believe this thread is still going. We are back at school and daycare now (but he is on my campus, so I see him several times a day), but this was a challenging summer. I finally realized I can't get it done when he is awake and that is fine. If I needed a break, I got a babysitter. We also have someone come in and do major cleaning every two weeks, so I decided keeping the perfect home was not worth my sanity. So I didn't vacuum daily. It made life easy and I had more fun with my son. He so close to walking I can't believe it! 7 days from his birthday and party and I know I overspent. But I don't care. He is only turning 1 once and it is going to be great

**cab54** · 08-15-2009, 11:38 AM

new-mom-to-be..............Hey, THERE you are!

Sounds like you've settled into a routine. It happens eventually, especially if you have to work. Shoot, I never vaccuumed daily even when I wasn't a new mom! LOL! The cleaning person is probably a good idea right now. If we hadn't had two house payments at the time, I would have gotten cleaning help. (Couldn't sell old house after DH was transferred.)

Good to see it's going better! Have a FUN birthday with your little guy! Get lots of pix!