Confessions of a Mother of 5!

So we can all pretend that Motherhood is peachy, full of snuggles, kisses and fun. Behind closed doors though EVERY mother is losing it at some point. Every Mother has 'those' days. You are not alone believe me.

As a Mum of 5 I'm constantly on the go. Someone is nearly always pushing boundaries, throwing a tantrum, arguing with their sibling. Some days I swear I'm going completely insane.

I thought I'd share a few things we come across being a larger than normal family.


You are NEVER alone:

You can try and hide but they will find you, nowhere is safe. I used to bathe alone, pee alone, get dressed alone... not anymore.





Washing, washing and more washing:

It. Never. Ends. I honestly don't remember the last time saw the bottom of my washing basket. Even if all the clothes are washed and you don't have enough for another load, your clean washing basket will be full waiting to be folded and put away. Which lets face it NOBODY wants to do. What is even more frustrating is my kids seem to spend 80% of their time naked! Don't even get me started on socks- why is there only ever one? Where does the other sock go? I honestly think they hop out the dryer and run for freedom.

Leaving the house:

Attempting to leave the with one child at times can be stressful. With five though it is total chaotic madness. This is a time where you literally repeat words over and over for 20 minutes before giving up and accepting defeat - "shoes, where are your socks, no they are your sisters underwear, no I don't know where your other shoe is, you can not just go in buzz lightyear pyjamas, shoes are on the wrong feet"... In the end your kids leave the house looking like this :

While you look like this:

Buying mountains of everything:

Juice, toilet roll, yoghurt, milk... nothing ever lasts. I seriously hope that one day companies will bring out Jumbo sizes of the common things we run low on weekly.

A weeks worth of juice.

8 years of cartoons!

Peppa pig, In the night garden, Thomas and friends, Dora... the list goes on. Most kids seem to go for the same cartoons too so you end up seeing the same episodes year after year. It is enough to drive anyone insane. You still like to see how the paw patrol save the day in the end though ;) 

Toys, toys, toys:

When the kids are finally asleep and you go to get a nice relaxing bath - ahh I can skip a day.

When the kids are 'bored' 

When you try to clean up the toys nobody has played with for an hour...

We try to work on less is more and regularly get rid of old or broken toys but there is like an endless supply of them. We even have multiple of the same toy to 'avoid arguments' which was a total waste of time because they want the EXACT same one. 

Life as a Mum of 5 is crazy at times, and can be pretty stressful.

I wouldn't have it any other way though :). I love our big family, organised chaos is my life and I love it! 

6 months old wow ! xx

So today on the 1st of July Erin turns 6 months old ... a whole half a year!

It's gone so fast.

Erin has become a beautiful little madam, she's so sweet, strong willed and is already feisty.

She is a girl who knows what she wants and will happily let you know.

She slotted right in with our bigger than average family. Her brothers and sister adore her.

She can be very cheeky and very noisy but she really does melt my heart with her massive smiles.

She is just amazing. I can't wait to see the kind of little lady she will become. 

She can now roll, sit up for a few minutes and chatters a lot, we are still waiting on her 1st word which I'm obviously hoping to be Mama ;). She's a big foody, she loves bananas, mango, pear, sweet potato and carrots. She hates broccoli !  

Happy half birthday Erin

Liar liar ... Pants on fire!

We spend time teaching our children not to lie yet most of us Parents do, A LOT of the time.

Of course the little lies we tell are to protect our children or to make things more fun.
Thankfully we are not as obvious as Pinocchio ...

Monsters under the bed:

Fear not Parents can pull out the monster spray! Monsters hate this stuff, it sends them right back to the monster world making them fear ever coming back.

Santa, the Easter Bunny, Tooth fairy:

These bring so much more fun to children. The excitement that children get from meeting Santa, receiving eggs from the Easter Bunny or a coin from the Tooth fairy is priceless. Yes annoyingly they get all the credit but it's so worth it.

Fairies:

In my house Fairies are real, this came about a while ago when my daughter was playing in the pool and became scared of a large Dragon fly near by. The only small flying non-scary thing I could think of were fairies, Every time my children see Dragonflies they say the fairies are in the garden and they are no longer scared of them.

Thunder storms:

We have recently had storms. My toddler was very scared of them and let's face it a scientific explanation would just not cut it for a 2 year old... So we told him that the lightening was like Christmas lights and that clouds love the lights so they 'clap' with joy (thunder)... This seemed to work even though we did have to clap and shout yay during every rumble.

Characters have bed times too:

Programmes are now available at the touch of a button 24/7 no waiting for it to come on at a certain time. Some times it's a total life saver but other times you dread that your child knows their favourite character is easily available at any time but when it's bedtime and your child wants to watch a particularly annoying programme on TV - even worse when it's a certain episode you've seen more times than you could possibly remember. I tell them, sorry it's late Peppa Pig is asleep now. 

Naughty Mummy! 

Food:

If we are not lying about what the actual food is (roast chicken = the chicken from Mcdonalds nuggets) we are lying about what is in their food (I swear I did not blend carrots into the pasta sauce)

Sometimes they catch me out but most of the time they have no idea.. you don't eat Cauliflower? That's what you think. 

If only our children knew how much we actually lied we would never hear the last of  'liar liar pants on fire' ...

Of course our lies are never meant to hurt/upset our children they are said with the best intentions. One day we know our children will probably be using the same lies with their own children.

Summer time update !

Here comes the sun do do do dooo ....

So I thought I'd do a quick update of our family and life in general.

Kayl: has been doing well at school and although he's sometimes a handful he is slowly getting there - though I have no idea where 'there' is.

Lilly: I was hoping I'd never see the day but my well behaved 'calm child' has developed an attitude haha! Still as kind and placid as ever but woah can she strop, in a few years time I know I'll be laughing at her tiny strops in comparison to a real teenager.

Kye: has had a few things to overcome this year bless him (he has a growth disorder and a hip with restricted movement) BUT this hasn't put out the flame of my cheeky little chappy!

Harry: almost 3! ... in a few weeks Harry turns 3, he's not yet in nursery as I just can't bring myself to do it :/ .. he's finally out of our bedroom now so that counts as letting go a bit right ?

Erin: She's growing so fast on us ! .. she has recently started to roll and loves bananas. No teeth as yet but we have one just there , it's just taking it's time to come through

I'm looking forward to a new adventure - more about that in future posts... eek exciting ! xx

A letter to my last ...

A while ago I read a blog I think it was called the last one. It tugged at my heart strings, every word read true.

So with Erin being our last little one it got me thinking about the things I'm going to miss.

 

The day you were born I knew it was true, that was the last day that I'd count as two.

The last time I'd ever feel that overwhelming pain, even though it was worth every gain.

Right now my little one you're still really small, though it wont be long until you start to crawl

Not long until your first word and then you'll be talking

Not long until your first step and soon after - walking.

 

Right now you hold my finger to fall asleep, one day you wont need it - the thought makes me weep

The worst thing is I won't even know

One day you'll need it the next day you won't

 

Right now you sleep in the crook of my arm, warm and cosy and safe from harm

One day you'll get bruises from climbing up trees, coming home with scrapes on your elbows and knees.

 

Right now you love every hug, snuggle and kiss,

One day it'll embarrass you, your kisses I'll miss.

 

You're growing up every day , growing big and strong

I'll miss you my baby, it won't be long.

 

One day I'll miss tripping over your toys in the hall....

and cleaning your sticky hand prints off all the walls.

 

I'll miss all the tantrums and screaming to come

The last time you say Mummy and just call me Mum.

 

So right now little girl I'll cherish every first and last

Right now it's the future but will one day be the past.

 

I'll hold you a little closer and kiss you some more

Spend more time with you playing on the floor

 

So please grow up slowly but keep your own pace,

Because right now my baby the lasts I can't face.

 

 

'Hold her a little longer, rock her a little more.

Tell her another story, you've only told her four.

Let her sleep on your shoulder, rejoice in her smile.

After all she's only small for such a little while'

                   -author unknown-

For the love of cloth !

Me again ...

So my latest venture (and love) has been cloth nappies.

I must admit when I first looked into them the thought of scraping poop off nappies REALLY put me off !

That was until I watched a few videos and read up on a few great sites and eventually decided to take the plunge - and I'm so glad I did !

So before I explain my cloth ways I must mention that there are a number of variations, styles and each will work better for some than others.

I use 2 different types of nappies:

Tots bots easy fit

 Tots bots come in a gorgeous range of styles, a lot of them being nursery rhyme themed. I have a few including Hey diddle diddle (pictured) Incy Wincy, Three little pigs and a few more ... as far as cuteness goes they are over the top. The easy fit range are easy to use with poppers for adjustable sizing from birth to potty. Some come with extra pop in extras to easily bulk up absorbency.

Personally I find these a little on the pricey side in comparison to my pockets, which I also find to be a lot better but these are just my views tots bots are loved by many

(The new tots bots star has arrived it is literally the easiest nappy I have seen no inserts to add just pop it on and go .. I can't comment much as I have only drooled at one and not actually purchased one - YET!)


Moving on to my other (and favourite) cloth nappy

Pocket nappies (Dudey baba)



Pockets also come in a variation of styles and fabrics (i.e minky) these too have adjustable poppers for sizing and are also birth to potty. They are also a lot cheaper than Tots bots. Like the Tots bots nappy they are also available with a Velcro fitting. I find for us these are less likely to leak and we get a better fit. These don't come with any liners attached like the Tots bots so there is a lot more 'stuffing' involved, though I find this very simple anyway. My other half prefers these nappies too.


So if you are still with me at this point you are obviously either a cloth lover yourself, curious or intrigued lol. It can all be a little confusing at first.


So we get to inserts/liners....
Like the nappies there are a lot of different types , which all do their own job :)
I personally use Bamboo, Microfiber and fleece liners. There are other options such as charcoal and hemp etc..

Bamboo

 



Bamboo is a very absorbent insert. It is my last line of defence - it goes furthest away from babies bottom.

Microfiber

 

 

Microfiber is another absorbent layer I put this on top of my bamboo closer to babies skin.

 

 

Both Bamboo and Microfiber go inside the pocket at the back of the nappy.

 

 

 

Fleece- the poop catcher

 





 

 Fleece liners are the poop catchers (you can also get disposable liners, though I haven't personally used them) these go next to your babies skin in the nappy but not in the pocket. For younger babies poop (my 3 month old) I just shower the fleece liner and wallah done. For my 2 year old I let any 'solids' fall off into the toilet and shower , that's it ! ...

...its all very simple though can sound a lot to take in.

 

Storing dirty nappies

 

 

I find a bucket with a fitted lid is perfect for this job, though you can buy actual nappy buckets. We just take out the inserts from the pockets and place them and the nappies in a bucket and pop the lid on to keep in any smells.

 

 

Washing nappies

When it comes to washing your nappies it's very simple just put them in the washing machine on a cold wash. To clean off most of the waste.
Then add your non-bio powder and wash at 60 degrees.
In no time you will have fresh nappies to use all over again.

Why cloth ?

 

• Cloth nappies are Eco friendly - no more adding to already over flowing land fill.
• After the initial purchase you save money not having to buy nappies every week !
• It's better for baby - no nasty chemicals by your babies precious skin.

  I'm adding some links that I found very helpful when choosing and starting off cloth:

 

Everything you need to know about all different types of cloth nappies  

 

How to put on a cloth nappy (very helpful) 

 

 

 

Back to blogging ....

So I've been away for a while...


I've been a busy Mama looking after our latest edition :)

Introducing Erin Rae Hobbs who decided to arrive (rather forced out) 11 days overdue on New Years Eve !

She is perfect , such a happy spirited little lady. She is now 15 weeks old (yes serious blog neglect oops)

Other than getting totally (and understandably - look at that face!) distracted life has been pretty normal. Erin has slotted in perfectly to the family. Her older siblings adore her.

So now I'm finally back to blogging I have a few new blogs coming up .. mostly about breastfeeding (mixed feeding), cloth nappies (which I am totally addicted to!) and just general daily life ups and downs .... keep watching :) xx