Sweet sleep and dropping the balls

Amazing what a difference two nights of solid sleep makes! Although it might all be cancelled out by the worst late afternoon ever in our household. Late afternoon is The Boys' niggling time, and if The Little Miss didn't have a nap, hers as well. So, I got home yesterday afternoon to a quiet and peaceful scene with two happy smiling babies and The Little Miss having a halfhearted nap on the couch. The Hubby was working late so I knew I was in this on my own for bath and sleep time. Just after the nanny left all hell broke loose!

The Little Miss started the wailing session by demanding a sweet (and this I am very strict about- no sweeties before dinner and preferably none in the week).-thanks gran for giving her a whole string of marshmallow fish when you picked her up after school! I can not understand why my own mom keeps undermining all my rules! (more about that at another time). 5 minutes later she had little L going along at the top of his voice, tears streaming down his face. Luckily little C was having fun in the baby gym, but by 6 pm all 3 were going full steam ahead with The Little Miss leading the chorus. Fellow twin moms will remember that bouncing two 7 kg (15 ,5 pound) plus babies is no easy task. And if a 3 year old persistently tries to climb on your nap, you're really short of about 2 laps and 6 arms.

I decided to take the brood for a bath and earlier bed time which all happened through constant screaming and tantrums from The Little Miss and constant crying by The Boys. I just had to block it all out and continue as if I am not hearing the other two while attending to one. I really still find it difficult to even express this in writing. Suffice to say, I got through it, eventually all fell asleep, The Boys relatively calmly with The Little Miss wailing in her room, and she, a bit calmer, after H(the dear hubby) arrived at 8 pm and manged to shove some food down. After a nice, long bath I just crashed in front of CSI, only to be interrupted by The Boys demanding a late night feed. Never saw the conclusion - oh, I hate that! Have found someone at work to tell me the conclusion.

The guilt still haunts me - not being able to console one of the 3 and wondering if I am doing any psychological harm to my kids by not attending to their need to be consoled. But sometimes, one can do no more than you can. That's when you start dropping the balls of the juggling act - what I call an 8 ball situation. (3 balls is normal - one can handle it, 5 balls is very very hard and 8 balls is impossible - you have to drop a couple along the way)