Triple Threat?

In just a few short days, I'll officially be at the halfway point in my pregnancy. That means that in just a few short months - less than five, to be exact - I'll officially be a mother of three. Wow.

To be honest, I'm a little freaked out. Completely excited, of course, but apprehensive too. I keep thinking about Cameron's birth, and what an adjustment it was to go from one child to two. That's one of the things that nobody told me beforehand. Sure, I knew what to expect in the delivery room and what would happen to my postpartum body (yuck!), but when it came to the mechanics of suddenly handling double the children, I was pretty much clueless. And I didn't even have much of a problem to speak of - Colin didn't show any signs of jealousy or anything. I can't even imagine what I would have done if he had, say, starting peeing his pants or wanting to be fed from a bottle or something. No, Colin was a real trouper - it was me that had the difficulty.

I have to laugh now because I was so smug when all I had was one child. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that any of you moms-of-one have it easy, because motherhood is always presenting some sort of challenge. But I think back on how much simpler it was when I only had Colin's needs to worry about. There was less laundry. There were fewer toys to pick up at the end of the day. One bath. One mouth to feed. One butt to wipe. One nasty cold or flu virus at a time. I didn't have to worry about evening out the quality time, coordinating naps and bedtimes, working around two schedules as opposed to one. Back then, it wasn't uncommon for me to feel accomplished; with a little work, I could finish a couple of my writing jobs, clean my house, catch up on the laundry, cook a good meal, meet all of Colin's needs, and still have time to read a book before bed. Not to mention get dressed and perhaps even slap on a little makeup.

But now ... "accomplished" seems like a word I used to use (much like "psych!"). From sunup to sundown - or as my girl Betsy would say, "son up to son down" - I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Now that I've got two kids, a picked-up house is a challenge. The laundry is almost always flooding the hamper. My library books lay around largely untouched until I realize they're overdue. And looking cute? Forget about it. I don't have time to do my hair when this is what happens when I turn my back.

(LOL! I don't want to post too many pics of my kids on such a public forum, but damn it, this is just too cute not to share.)

Anyway, my point is, I was totally unprepared for the HUGE adjustment of going from one to two children. I knew it would be different, but I didn't know just how many changes there would be. And now here we are, adding one more to the mix, and I can't help but worry that I'll just totally fall apart. You'll come to my house and the laundry will be piled up and blocking the door, roaches will be feeding off the filth on the kitchen floor, my kids will be coated with some sort of crust, and I'll be wearing a six-day-old outfit with body hair creeping out from beneath the cuffs of my sweatpants.

(Just kidding ... I think.)

Is it just me, though? My mother-in-law raised a gaggle of kids - two of them a mere TEN MONTHS apart in age - and is always so nonchalant about it, like it wasn't that hard. She loves to tell the story about the day the family moved (as in U-Haul, packing boxes, the whole nine) and she had everything unpacked and organized in time to fry up a chicken and bake a cake from scratch for dinner. With, like, 100 kids at her feet. Am I missing some secret trick? If I have trouble keeping up with the responsibilities of two children, how does anyone with more than that do it? How am I going to function with number three?

I've got more to say, but it'll have to wait ... I just heard a shriek of, "Cameron took off his diaper with poop in it!"

*sigh*