We bought a new bed for our four year old, a big girl bed, or at least bigger than the baby cot she’s been sleeping in for over four years…I wanna say #lazyparenting but it’s not only that, we just didn’t have the space. We still don’t but she had literally outgrown her little bed. And I thought it was time for the little one to move out of the travel cot in the dressing room and into the baby cot in the kids room. Three beds in the kids room does kind of feel like a little dormitory. But we have rediscovered what a spacious dressing room we have. We can open the doors again, without having to move the travel cot back and forth! Christmas eve was the first night all three of them slept together in their room. Our four year old (she can now simply step out of her bed) came to our room at 9.30 am, her siblings still sleeping…So of course I imagined every night would be like this, with all three kids sleeping through the night until morning… Actually, I can’t complain. I feel like the kids have finally developed a more or less consistent sleeping pattern. We still have interrupted nights, extremely early mornings and the kids still sleep in our bed from to time – that doesn’t sound like an improvement at all! – but it’s becoming less frequent. So hopefully we are past sleepless nights.

Obviously we still have enough parenting challenges with two little girls and their regular meltdowns, our little boy and his day to day frustrations. I’m having trouble staying calm and keeping sane these days. I recently realized that I’ve stopped reading parenting blogs so maybe that’s why. Reading about how other parents struggle helps me put things into perspective, reminds me that I’m not alone, that it’s okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes, and that I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. The kids started collecting stamps for good behavior and self sufficiency (my daughter is saving for a trophy) and I decided to start one for myself, for staying calm and not getting angry. So far I have one stamp…