My oldest child turned 3 a few months before my water broke with my third baby. Sometime between when I was holding my 1-year-old on my lap, chasing him around, and stuffing myself with eggplant parmesan (I heard tomato sauce could induce labor and he was a week overdue), my baby decided it was time. I thought I was ready.
After all, everyone told me the first baby was the hardest transition and that going from one kid to two was “way harder than going from two to three.”
Everyone was wrong — SO WRONG
The people who were trying to ease the blow about how impossible three kids ages 4 and under would actually be were liars were a capital “L.” Looking back, I’m not sure why I listened to them because they either didn’t have three kids or had three kids, like, decades ago.
Ever since I became a mom of three kids in under four years, my life has felt like a ball of tumbleweed blowing all over a road with fast moving traffic.
Blake Lively did us all a favor by setting the record straight about the madness of having three kids close together. She didn't hold back in the least during an interview with Good Morning America. about what it's really like to have three back-to-back-to-back little ones.
In fact, the actress who has three daughters — ages 5, 3 and somewhere around 6 months — with husband Ryan Reynolds said, ”It’s like going from two to 3,000.”
She isn’t kidding
Having three kids means someone is always left out, someone is always upset, and you can’t catch your breath because you are outnumbered all the damn time.
Lively also told Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan, “People say that from two to three, it’s the same, it’s kind of easy. Those people do not have three kids. It is crazy. But I’m here!”
'Crazy' doesn’t even begin to describe it
I only left the house once a week for years because it was the only way to ensure we didn’t cause a catastrophe I couldn’t handle. Even then, I was always putting out fires and would start counting down the hours to bedtime as soon as we finished breakfast.
Having three kids close together is a joy a lot of the time, but it’s been the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done. It's not letting up — and I’ve been at it for over 13 years now.
I hate to tell you, Blake, but it doesn’t get any easier as they get older. Just wait until you have three teenagers who need you to drive them everywhere, with a strong side of sass, and wanting expensive things.
Sure, you get better at multitasking and blocking out all the noise, but you'll wonder every day how you’re going to get through. You'll do this until they move out — at least, that's the impression I'm getting.
So, cheers to the parents of three kids close in age — it takes a special kind of grit.
For the rest of you: If you’ve never potty trained one child, with one in diapers, while also nursing or bottle-feeding another child — who is also in diapers — you aren’t allowed to have an opinion on this subject.
