Anonymous wrote:The earliest years were actually quite a breeze, with the transition to two kids harder than adding the third at least mentally.

I too found the challenging period to be when the third became mobile up to around age 3. The older kids were starting to do sports, needing more help with homework and staying up later, yet the youngest dropped his nap and started tantruming, etc.

Now my youngest is six and I'm really enjoying this phase. The kids are all fairly independent, they have their unique interests and activities, we can active and engaging things as a family like see movies together (not baby movies but more entertaining ones!) and family bingo/game nights, and we can travel internationally with carryon luggage and easier transitions to time zones, etc. It's really a lot of fun - definitely busy but fun.

This. When youngest is a toddler and older two are in elementary school it is HARD if you don't have a lot of spousal support. Waking the toddler up to pick the big kids up at school, draggled crabby toddler to music lessons, swimming, etc. for the big kids, big kids wanting to do age appropriate activities like ice skating, trampoline places, sledding (for more than 10 min); meeting the needs of elementary kids is tricky to manage with a toddler, their naps (or no naps, which may be worse), travel...

My older two were 3 and almost 6 when my third was born. We had (and have!) a fantastic and completely reliable nanny. Definitely the first year to 18 months was a bit chaotic. It did help, as a PP said, to enforce a nap/rest time for all the kids at the same time, and we do early bedtimes as well. We also sleep train.

But generally it's been awesome and while the baby is not always chill (she throws huge tantrums!) she goes with the flow and is SO into her older sibs and they into her. The current trend is they take turns getting her dressed in the morning and it's so cute. She is almost 2 and things have definitely turned a corner to a calmer house and I love it. GL OP.

of course it'll be hard--but of course its do-able!! One thing I will second is EARLY bedtime. I had twins when toddler was 2yrs9mos They all had 6:45pm in bed times for YEARS. and that saved my sanity (I also had au pair help for almost 5 years, tho I should have kept that for six........)

Anonymous wrote:You and DH should watch Seth Meyers' stand up special on Netflix, Lobby Baby. He has 2 and they are thinking of a 3rd. One of his jokes was that he and his wife no longer want to hang out with anyone but couples with 3 kids. Parents of one are too cautious and concerned about every little thing, parents of 2 + parents of 2 getting together it's just kind of chaotic with a lot of parental involvement still. But with parents of 3, it's totally relaxed because they have no fear. He joked:

Kid comes running into the room, "Mom a raccoon bit me!"

Mom of 3:"Well did you bite it back?"

I'm 15:55 from the first page, and this one made me LOL! I'm totally that mom. DH and I have always had a preference for relaxed parents, but even more so now.

You and DH should watch Seth Meyers' stand up special on Netflix, Lobby Baby. He has 2 and they are thinking of a 3rd. One of his jokes was that he and his wife no longer want to hang out with anyone but couples with 3 kids. Parents of one are too cautious and concerned about every little thing, parents of 2 + parents of 2 getting together it's just kind of chaotic with a lot of parental involvement still. But with parents of 3, it's totally relaxed because they have no fear. He joked:

Kid comes running into the room, "Mom a raccoon bit me!"

Mom of 3:"Well did you bite it back?"

Things got really hard once the baby became mobile and was napping less but then again I had 2 under 2 at one point so it was kinda like having twins. My age gap is 6, 2, and 14 months. Both parents work full-time and kids are in full-time care. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to outsource any household tasks right now other than HelloFresh occasionally. Weekends and holidays can be exhausting and the youngest 2 often fight. Surprisingly the baby is the aggressor but I think she just feels left out by her older siblings.

It takes awhile to find your groove and what works but you will get through it. My third wasn't planned but I am starting to finally see the silver lining. Just make sure you spend individual time with your kids, especially the oldest.

My third is 10months and the older kids are a little over 6 and a little over 4. It hasn’t been easy for us, but we also changed house, went through renovations and I went went back to work full time (all of this in the last 6 months). Baby is starting to sleep much better at night (knock on wood). Older twos are in FT school/preschool and I have an amazing nanny.