I need help...
I have a 3yo DD1 and 6 week DD2. Until DD2 was born I was a WOHM and DD1 was in daycare. She really liked daycare. She's one of those kids who needs to be BUSY or she's really not happy. I'm now a SAHM for the forseable future, so we need to get this figured out.
The last time I was a full time SAHM was when DD1 was 12 month old, and things are very different now.
We have the mornings figured out. With a combination of playdates, playgroups and a dance class, the mornings are full. (Today is unusual for a Monday that I don't have anything planned. But there are lots of errands I want to run so we should be good.) But it's the afternoons that are killing us.
I had planned to do preschool stuff with DD1 in the afternoons when DD2 napped. But DD2 has ended up being a really high needs baby (like classic Dr Sears high needs) and spends the entire day in the sling with me walking around. She's also been really colicy and it turns out that she's reacting when I eat gluten so we're working on that. So I'm emotionally and physically tired in the afternoon. I count down the minutes until DH gets home and he can hold DD2 for awhile.
Currently we have lunch and then DD1 has quiet time. She had been napping at daycare but was really ready to drop that nap. But she still needs some time to herself. That takes us to 2pm at the latest. That leaves 3 hours. 3 hours where the baby fusses and cries at me unless I'm doing "the dance" and my 3yo whines about being bored. It seems like I have the energy to set 1 thing up for her to do, like playdough or a craft. But once that's done, which can be a few minutes if it's a bit too challenging for her and I can't help because I have to keep dancing with the baby, we're lost.
It seems like all she does it end up watching TV and making a big mess with toys.
I need help for the afternoons. I recently set something up with a friend to go somewhere, like the museum or science center, one afternoon a week (after our dance class). One other afternoon she goes to her grandparents house so I get a bit of a break. But the other 3 are deadly. I can't just go out every afternoon because we run out of places to go that don't cost money and we can't really go shopping every day, and anyway it wouldn't solve the problem.
Any ideas of long lasting activities that don't make me have to spend just as long cleaning up as they take for her to do them? It can take forever to clean up after she plays playdough because the baby cries when I bend over to pick stuff up so I walk around the house, pick up a tiny piece of play dough and then walk around again.
I have a 3yo DD1 and 6 week DD2. Until DD2 was born I was a WOHM and DD1 was in daycare. She really liked daycare. She's one of those kids who needs to be BUSY or she's really not happy. I'm now a SAHM for the forseable future, so we need to get this figured out.
The last time I was a full time SAHM was when DD1 was 12 month old, and things are very different now.
We have the mornings figured out. With a combination of playdates, playgroups and a dance class, the mornings are full. (Today is unusual for a Monday that I don't have anything planned. But there are lots of errands I want to run so we should be good.) But it's the afternoons that are killing us.
I had planned to do preschool stuff with DD1 in the afternoons when DD2 napped. But DD2 has ended up being a really high needs baby (like classic Dr Sears high needs) and spends the entire day in the sling with me walking around. She's also been really colicy and it turns out that she's reacting when I eat gluten so we're working on that. So I'm emotionally and physically tired in the afternoon. I count down the minutes until DH gets home and he can hold DD2 for awhile.
Currently we have lunch and then DD1 has quiet time. She had been napping at daycare but was really ready to drop that nap. But she still needs some time to herself. That takes us to 2pm at the latest. That leaves 3 hours. 3 hours where the baby fusses and cries at me unless I'm doing "the dance" and my 3yo whines about being bored. It seems like I have the energy to set 1 thing up for her to do, like playdough or a craft. But once that's done, which can be a few minutes if it's a bit too challenging for her and I can't help because I have to keep dancing with the baby, we're lost.
It seems like all she does it end up watching TV and making a big mess with toys.
I need help for the afternoons. I recently set something up with a friend to go somewhere, like the museum or science center, one afternoon a week (after our dance class). One other afternoon she goes to her grandparents house so I get a bit of a break. But the other 3 are deadly. I can't just go out every afternoon because we run out of places to go that don't cost money and we can't really go shopping every day, and anyway it wouldn't solve the problem.
Any ideas of long lasting activities that don't make me have to spend just as long cleaning up as they take for her to do them? It can take forever to clean up after she plays playdough because the baby cries when I bend over to pick stuff up so I walk around the house, pick up a tiny piece of play dough and then walk around again.
) and I didn't feel like I was always planting DD1 in front of the tv (which always made her behavior worse) while I attended the baby.
I know it's hard. I homeschool my oldest two and when I had the baby 5 months ago things came to a halt for quite some time and still are slow going at this point a lot of days. I try not to worry. I know it's tough though, hang in there. Just know you are not alone.
