{"id":912,"date":"2013-11-21T20:09:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T20:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebadassbreastfeeder.com\/?p=912"},"modified":"2015-04-07T21:54:56","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T21:54:56","slug":"coming-out-of-the-blur-the-troublets-turn-two-by-guest-blogger-davina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebadassbreastfeeder.com\/?p=912","title":{"rendered":"COMING OUT OF THE BLUR\u2026 THE TROUBLETS TURN TWO by guest blogger Davina"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Davina's<\/a><\/p>\n

Wow, another year has gone by so fast, a whole year since I wrote about our first year of gentle parenting and breastfeeding triplets<\/a>.\u00a0 This last year has obviously been gentle parenting and breastfeeding TODDLER triplets, which has been a whole new ballgame!<\/p>\n

\"Davina's<\/a><\/p>\n


\nIt\u2019s been a year of learning to walk, and then run and then climb and now jump.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a year of leaving behind family and friends to move from New Zealand to Hong Kong. It\u2019s been a year of connecting with other triplet breastfeeding mamas through blogs and groups and spreading the word that it can be done.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a year of more sleep deprivation than is legal\u2026in short it\u2019s been a wild, busy and crazy year! But we are still breastfeeding, and that has got to be a bonus!<\/p>\n

\"Davina<\/a><\/p>\n

These days they are all sleeping through the night, Willow started doing this around 12 months, Summer around 18 months and Connor finally decided it was time to give mama a break just 2 weeks ago and went from 3 hour stretches all through the night to suddenly doing 12 hours straight\u2026miracle!!\u00a0 So no more breastfeeding at night for us, but the day time is still crazy boobie time!\u00a0 They all wake up around 5-6am, and Daddy gets up with them primarily because he goes to work at 7.30 and isn\u2019t home until long after the kids are in bed so it\u2019s his only time to see them during the day, but it also gives me an extra hours sleep (which I might possibly use for facebook time!) I feed them all around 7am, which is a noisy riot of who gets to go on first and who has to wait.\u00a0 This is still the hardest part of breastfeeding triplets, listening to the heartbroken one who has to wait for their turn.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t become any better at sharing or understanding just because there are three of them, people say to me all the time \u2018oh they must be great at sharing\u2019\u2026not so.\u00a0 I don\u2019t force them to share anything else, but it is an unavoidable fact that they have to share mama and the boob.<\/p>\n

\"Davina<\/a><\/p>\n

Anyway, so that feeding may take an hour, with various changes of who\u2019s on where, and back on and back off\u2026there is always someone waiting to take a place if someone else is distracted for a second!\u00a0 Then we play for a bit and go for our morning walk.\u00a0 We have a lovely safe area to walk around, which is great for them to learn how to stay close to mama, how to navigate stairs, and lots of fun nature stuff to look at and poke.\u00a0 We come back from our walk and play some more and maybe get out to do a grocery run, which we do most days, in small amounts to make it manageable, plus it counts as another outing for their active minds!\u00a0 When we come home it\u2019s time for a nap which is nursing them all to sleep, one after the other.\u00a0 It takes me around 30-45 minutes to get them all asleep, and I might get anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to myself while they sleep.\u00a0 This is usually chore time (which I might possibly use for facebook time!) When they get up they all want boobie again, which counts as the first course of lunch. After lunch we go for our main outing of the day which could be a bus ride to the park, or a walk to the park, or a playdate with friends.\u00a0 The other day we even did a ferry ride to get to a museum! I am getting pretty good at taking them out places by myself\u2026we can either go out in a double buggy and one Ergo, or I can wear two Ergos and one walks, depending on how far we are travelling. We are pretty much past any NIP, they seem to get enough at home, and don\u2019t really ask for it while we are out and about, which I am kind of grateful for, given the competition and level of noise that goes with nursing!<\/p>\n

\"Davina's<\/a><\/p>\n

They may have more boobie during the afternoon if anyone gets upset, or gets hurt, or if they just fancy a snack\u2026they are always eating other food, and drink plenty of water but it hasn\u2019t really slowed them down in terms of wanting boobie! Then we start the bedtime routine about 3.30pm\u2026it takes about two hours to get them fed dinner, change three butts, change three bodies into pyjamas, brush teeth, read stories and nurse everyone to sleep (and that\u2019s nights when we don\u2019t have bathtime!)\u00a0 They are all asleep by 5.30\/6pm and I get a lovely few hours to myself before my husband gets home, (which I might use for facebook time!) then I get myself to bed by about 9pm so I\u2019m ready to start it all again tomorrow!<\/p>\n

\"Davina's<\/a><\/p>\n

I am actually grateful that we are still breastfeeding, throughout our move to Hong Kong it was the one constant in their lives and kept them calm and connected.\u00a0 It was a very stressful time, with an 11 hour plane trip, 4 changes of homes in 4 weeks, suddenly not seeing any family, seeing a lot less of Daddy, new people, new food, new everything\u2026breastfeeding was a godsend.\u00a0 And because 3 toddlers can get VERY loud, it is lovely to have such a simple thing to use when they are hurt or upset. I understand that breastfeeding a child who is 2 years old isn\u2019t for everyone, and I fully support other women\u2019s choices in how long they breastfeed for, but breastfeeding my triplets for 2 years has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I am proud of myself and very happy that it continues.\u00a0 My children will decide when it is time to wean, and that is what works for my family.<\/p>\n

\"Davina<\/a><\/p>\n

Davina
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