Living Life with Three Kiddos + Go to Mom Products!

This isn't our typical design blog post but my family is my whole world and I wouldn't have my business without them - they are intertwined in so many ways. And since having Sydney and being a family with three kiddos, we have gotten a lot of questions not only about life with three but also inevitably how that affects owning my own business. Plus it's an excuse to show off our sweet baby girl - Sydney Kaylynn Hauguerd! Check out Sydney's Nursery Design!

So here we are 7 weeks postpartum and we're finally getting into a rhythm - a rhythm of three! I've always liked the number 3, and odd numbers! In fact, it's one of the many rules of design - The Rule of Three or the Rule of Odd Numbers - odd numbers are more appealing to the eye, create interest and force movement. This describes our lives with three kiddos in so many ways! Three kiddos has always been appealing to me and I LOVE having three, there's never a dull moment in our home or lives and without a doubt we are always on the go!

As mentioned, we've been asked dozen's of questions about life with three so we wanted to share with you our Top 5 Questions asked:

How do you do it all?! ...the secret...I don't. Having a newborn and another 2 kiddos at home is a lot, I'm going to be completely honest. The BIGGEST lesson I've learned through having three kiddos is how to accept help and how to reach out and ask for it when we need it. I'm not one to ask for help but know I can't do it alone. After having Sydney, our friends and family members surrounded us with love and were so willing to lend a hand and we were so ready to accept. Without them I may have gone a bit crazy! They say it takes an army...if ever I understood that, it's be now!

2. What was a harder transition? 1-2 or 2-3? Without a doubt 2-3! I think this is different for everyone however because there are no 2 scenarios the same. All kiddos are different and all families are different. My experiences are going to be similar to that of another mom, but never the same, as she may have kiddos different ages than I do when having a third or the kiddos may have different temperaments than ours do. For us however, the most challenging part of going from 2-3 has been the other kiddos reactions to life's changes after brining Sydney home. Don't get me wrong - they are beyond in love with her, but change is hard. Our son, Preston is 3 1/2 years old and had always had an even keeled temperament. Seeing him struggle with his emotions and not knowing why he was feeling what he was feeling was so hard to handle. We thought our oldest daughter, Addi (6 1/2 yrs. old), was completely handling the life change just fine until one day she said, "this doesn't feel like home anymore!" This broke my heart into a 1,000 pieces! On some level we knew it would be difficult for them, but couldn't really grasp how. As I told Addi, there will be a time when she won't even remember life without Sydney, life will settle down and it will feel like home again. The first few weeks were just very difficult on all of us in some way or another and we needed time to adjust. Now that we are settling into life as 5, our new "normal" doesn't seam so foreign to the kiddos and temperaments have also started to settle.

3. How do you balance three kiddos with your career as a self employed interior designer? This is, in all honesty, something I thought would be easier than it turned out to be. Being self employed has so many perks but what it doesn't come with is paid maternity leave. Because I also had clients in the middle of projects when I had Sydney, I couldn't just drop them and pick them back up 3 months later. I also really enjoy what I do and enjoy seeing the fruits of my labor so to just drop it all together would have been hard. So what did I learn to do - ASK FOR HELP! It has definitely been a balancing act but I now feel as though I have a great handle on it all as we get into a groove. I love being busy but what I don't love is feeling like things are spiraling out of control so I tend to find ways as soon as possible to get a handle on things so that doesn't happen. There's a huge sense of accomplishment when I can bring order to chaos and make sense of it all and with the help I'm getting from family, I'm able to do that.

4. How are YOU doing? It's funny - you can almost point out a mom of 3 (or more) just simply by the way they ask this question. You can almost hear the understanding in their voice - genuinely interested and/or concerned for my well-being - knowing it's a challenge. Again, this goes back to the biggest lesson I have learned this go around - ASK FOR HELP! And as I mentioned before that, going from 2-3 has been more difficult than any other phase - this 3rd little sweetheart threw me for a loop for sure so I had to get real about taking care of myself in order to be there for my kiddos the way they needed me to be. Reaching out to friends and family as well as my doctor has really put me in a great place. In doing so, I have been able to minimize my stress and really enjoy the newborn stage and pay more attention to the older kiddos as well which results in better mental health for everyone! This has forced me to take a step back, slow down a bit and enjoy this stage of my life and where we are as a family.

5. What are your favorite baby products this go around? It's funny how quickly products change in just a few short years! It's like all of the equipment I used for my son 3 years ago is now old news! So I have been on the hunt for the best new products that work for me as a busy mom.

Here is a list of my go to items:

Doc a tot - this is my go to item of all time! I honestly had no idea about this product but every other mom that's had a baby in the last year knows about this thing! It is by far the most used item in our house for Sydney.