With a month still to go, no one in this house is rational any more. Ren is refusing to comply with the most basic of requests, Mare weeps at the drop of a hat, Cute Husband looks like he’s in Day 5 of Basic School Bivouak, and I’m not sleeping very well.
Late night ‘net surfing, checking up on Octomom, I found this:
Rush transcript from “The O’Reilly Factor,” March 18, 2009.
GUEST HOST LAURA INGRAHAM: Now, is there any indication that Nadya Suleman now is just completely overwhelmed and can’t handle this? I know she’s getting help from a philanthropic group, an Angels group that’s coming and helping with nanny work and so forth with the kids. But has she outwardly displayed any, you know, emotion of being just completely overwhelmed? Because I can’t — I can’t imagine how she’s coping.
SHANNON FOX, FAMILY THERAPIST: No. It’s interesting you would bring that up, Laura, because an indicator of her mental health would be that she would be overwhelmed. Any normal parent would be absolutely overwhelmed at the thought of eight babies, let alone bringing two home to six more kids. But Nadya hasn’t shown any sense of overwhelm or any sense that this is a momentous occasion, and that sort of indicates that she’s still living in this land of denial, that everything is going to be fine.
Oh, excellent. I’m super-healthy then because I’m only taking one newborn home to two older kids and I am FREAKING OUT.
I’m telling you, about 90% of the thoughts that run through my head these days come in some form of the phrase “Oh my goodness, I’m going to have two kids in another few months? AHHHHHHHH!!!!”
The third one’s easier. I promise. Sort of.
I am on day 15 of baby 3 and the hardest part is that our oldest went with Grandma and Papa to the farm. There is no one to play with our middle child and he is driving me bonkers. The baby seems to realize the chaos of our lives after the last nine months and just sits quietly while it whirls around him. Even going out to do stuff hasn’t been that hard…I already know the drill, it’s just one more body to be included.
I noticed with my 3rd that she was great friends with the bouncy chair. I just had to put her down more than I did the other girls. But you know what? She’s almost 5 now and she’s just awesome! It turns out I didn’t do her any permanant damage
You’ll be great, Liz.
I always heard that the 3rd one just takes care of herself.
No?
I have nothing to offer you except weak encouragement. It may be tough at first, but it will be ok. Or some form of ok. An altered, unrecognizable state of ok?
I am fine example of superb mental health I am celebrating (with peaceful cup of coffee) the end of spring break. And I am not brave enough to have three. Two is plenty. So you ARE sane and you WILL be fine. And you won’t remember the first year.
That which does not kill us makes us crazier than a loon. Or that’s how it works for me.
So at least you won’t be on the news as the next overwhelmed mom with postpartum psychosis… Not funny, I know! Seriously, these women usually maintained that they were fine to the outside world. Then they crack one day. At least you have this blog for “therapy”!
I freaked out before Xander was born. I was SO freaked at the notion of having another kid – even though he was very much planned. After he was here though, it was a great transition. Hard to get used to having a baby again (The big kids were 4 and 6, so the house was no longer baby-proof!) but adding another family member was no biggie. Now, having Gabriel, that has been more challenging, but I think it’s more that having a toddler and a newborn at the same time is tough. It seems harder this time than it did when the 2 big kids were tiny though.
DaMomma’s post was written 3/22. My comment is being made on 3/24. Today’s headline: Octomom fires FREE nanny service for allegedly spying on her. WTF?
It will be great, I agree you may not remember a lot of the first year, but its totally worth it. Of course our third was also our first girl, so I am not sure if it was having three or her being a girl that was so hard to adjust to!!