Happy 11th Birthday

Today is my daughter’s 11th birthday. To celebrate I am writing this blog about the first year of her life. Some years fly by and some stand out in memory. This one was memorable.

I’d just had three crazy years with 3 little boys growing into slightly bigger boys. They wore costumes of Superman, Batman and Robin. Me, I thought I was Wonder Woman. Just as the youngest was 3 I sighed, looked at my husband and said, “Things seem a little easier now.” Within a month I discovered I was pregnant with my fourth child.

By the time my daughter was born the boys were 4, 6 and 8. I had a difficult pregnancy with extreme tiredness. Actually I think I’d have had extreme tiredness without being pregnant. The boys were energetic beyond anything I’d ever known.

What was really nice about having my fourth child was that everyone was homeschooled. I was running on my own timetable and not having to get the older children to school and back (maybe even multiple schools) every day. We stayed home a lot, we did as much schoolwork as we were able and we learned to function as a family. Well, dad was at work, but I learned to function with 4 children.

As soon as she was born I wondered if I could cope with 4 children, 3 of whom were very energetic boys. What I did was to take all 4 of them to a park as soon as we were ready each morning, which was often 10 or 11. I let the boys run around and play for an hour while I gave my daughter an extended feed. By the time we got home the boys had a little less energy, I was relaxed and my baby was ready for a long sleep.

The best thing that I remember about my daughter’s first year was that she was always held. One brother or another was always holding her. When dad came home he wanted to hold her. Sometimes she needed feeding and the person holding her wouldn’t give her to me because they would tell me, “I’ve only just got her!”

I’m not sure how much schoolwork was done, I know it was always on my mind. But I know the family bonding time was huge. I’m so thankful that for the first year of my daughter’s life she wasn’t put in and out of a car seat all day and had her sleep regularly disrupted. For most of the first year of her life she was given the message that she was much loved with 4 family members round her constantly. Whatever education my other children received or didn’t receive, family relationship has got to be a higher priority.