Coping with 2 under 2

When I was pregnant with Florrie, one of my worries was 'how would I cope with two under two'?! There is 22 months between them so, as I type, Jackson is actually 2 and Florrie is 11 weeks now. 

I found it so much easier than I thought it would be, even during late pregnancy, which I thought would be near impossible. I actually gave up work as a childminder just before Christmas and Florrie arrived on the 7th February, so I had planned on having a bit of time to relax. However, it wasn't very relaxing after all, when all of the Christmas fun was out of the way it did get increasingly difficult. Having the large bump and being really tired is the polar opposite to what an active toddler needs! 

Here are a few tips that I found helped me: 

• Batch cook meals - I googled 'freezer friendly meals' and pretty much made all of the recipes I found! This is a really good relief, even when having your first. After giving birth you need to feed you body good healthy meals in order to keep your energy up and this isn't easy to do when you have a newborn, so having pre-made meals makes it so much easier. 
• Accept all help you are offered! - My mum was amazing and cooked us tons of meals, which, on top of the freezer meals, meant I didn't cook a single dinner until Florrie was about 8 weeks old! It made it so much easier!! She would also come round to the house if Chris was working late or if I just needed a bit of help during the day. It's not that I wouldn't have been able to cope but it's just nice to have the extra support if it's available. 
• I find that the days we spend at home indoors are normally more difficult than the days we head out to the playgroups or classes that we usually have booked, so try and keep a few things in the diary. 
• Friends are amazing - Heading out and seeing my friends definitely helped me feel happy when the 'baby blues' was trying to take over. 
• In the early days, Chris would take care of Jackson while we established feeding, which leads on to my next tip, Breastfeeding. I know that not everyone is able to breastfeed and this isn't me saying 'breast is best' (fed is best in my opinion) but not having to wash and sort out bottles constantly gives you the gift of time. I can feed Florrie quickly and easily wherever I am.  
• Another thing which really helped was including Jackson in everything. I would ask him to bring me wipes or nappies and even to open the back door when the dogs needed to go out to the toilet! Anything that he could do, I would ask him to help and he loved it.
• Whenever Florrie was asleep, I would focus all my attention on Jackson and vice-versa when Jackson was asleep, which I think stopped some jealousy coming in to play. 
• Something that not everyone will be able to do but I was lucky enough to; get a cleaner. She would come once a week and it meant that my time was not taken up by cleaning and I could focus more time on the children. Again, just to stress this, I know many mums do it all while still being brilliant mums and I am not saying I wouldn't be able to cope if I hadn't got one, but it's just a little something to make life a bit easier. 
• Finally, sometimes when it all goes shits up, drink lots of wine (making sure you aren't breastfeeding straight afterwards of course)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sure it's all going to get a lot more difficult as soon as Florrie is on the move, but I'll update you on that when the time comes. It may be a very different blog!! 

Anyone else got any tips? 

Love Sophia xxx