Connecting With Bump While Being Mum To 7

Being mum to 7 gives me very little time to myself but having them all in full time school now , it means I have more time on my hands than I can sometimes handle and sometimes its pretty lonely after being used to all the noise and commotion I have had to deal with for so long.

I am not alone no more though!
Baby bump is growing and it wont be long before he makes his arrival , 15 weeks if you want to count them up and for me it is flying way to quickly .

My worry is one I had when I initially took the choice not to have any more children before I found out I was expecting again.

How am I going to be able to take time to bond with this baby especially when there are so many others that take up the other load of my time?.

The answer is I already am!


So many people ask me ''How do you cope, how do you manage''?

My answer is always the same , ''I'm a mum first and that is my priority''.

Luckily for me , I have a husband and although he is not at home all day , I still find him to be my rock in the mornings and nights when I feel he does try his hardest to share his time with them to and also take a load of my strains if ever there is one and believe me , each day is not as rosy as some may think. Being such a large family is chaos and crazy at times and there are days when I simply want to run away or close the door but I think my past helps me overcome the battles of each event and chaotic moment because deep down I truly know how blessed I really am to have a family in the first place . 
So let me share with you what our average school day is like.

Here is a little of my routine of each day-

• Alarm is set at 7am, this is when my husband wakes most days and he gets the oldest child up for school. Me and the other children are usually trying to catch the extra half an hour sleep or most mornings , they sit playing for half an hour before the next alarm. I have always been a monster for waking up, I am not to be messed with in a morning lol.
• 7.30am the second alarm goes off and this is my call for me and the other children to get up and get ready, get washed, brush teeth and make beds (I have to be honest in saying it takes me 10 more minutes to crawl out of my pit and even longer for the smallest child Kaiden to be carried downstairs to force him into getting up, he hates mornings as much as I do ).
• 8am means it is time for Philip the eldest to leave to go get the school bus . The other children are usually getting breakfast while I am either doing hairs or hoovering downstairs and putting a load of washing in the machine, there is usually a battle to make sure everyone has their school bags to.
• By 8.30am it is time for me and the other children to put the dogs in their rooms and give them fresh water and food while doors and windows are locked and we make our way to the school . The school run usually consists of me trying to waddle slowly while telling them to slow down . We walk past fields of horses and farms and there is always something to amaze us on our morning stroll , usually the horse playing or sometimes it means they have to pick up Galium Aparine (also known as sticky jack to my children) and they run the whole length throwing it at each other .
• At 9am I walk the children into the yard and they line into their rows, Kaiden is in reception so it means I have to walk him in and hang his coat while he sits on the carpet waiting for instructions from the teacher while I then sneak out and make my way to the shop if needed or home.
• By 9.30am I am back home, I then need to let the dogs out for the toilet then bring them back in to settle , make myself some breakfast and a cup of tea and I sit and enjoy that ever more annoying Show you all call Jeremy Kyle which I find fascinating each and every day. It always somehow makes me feel so much better about my life if ever I am having a bad day . I stroke my bump and enjoy the kicks that he gives me usually at this time .
• By 11am , I have gave the kitchen a quick wipe down , washed any dishes and loaded the tumble dryer and so I take the dogs and me up to my bedroom where I have my work station .
• I check my emails and work through reading blogs and commenting on them for the next hour or so while checking emails and notifications and by 1am I am usually already taking pictures of my upcoming blog post and downloading them to the computer ready to start drafting the post to go with them. 
• When the clock strikes 2.30pm it is time to put down the laptop and put the dogs out for another toilet break before heading of out the door to go and pick up the kids form school.
• The children finish with in 5 minutes of each other so at 3.15pm I am stood in the younger nursery area waiting for Kaiden to come out before making my way to the main entrance where my other children are and by 3.30pm we are all on our way home again making decisions on what to eat for tea or trying to calm the next argument and tittle tattle gossip that has emerged from the day.
• At 4pm we are all home and the children then take coats and shoes upstairs out the way and do their chores. With such a large family , each child even Kaiden aged 5 has a chore from cleaning the fluff out the tumble dryer filter to the older ones doing the dishes or putting clothes away. They each take of their uniforms and if needed I will put them in the washing machine , this is something we do every other day with uniforms and the children have begun to understand this routine .
• I will then make tea for the kids and sit relaxing with bump while they enjoy it , me and my husband will (depending if he is home yet) sit and eat together .
• The children spend the next few hours playing with each other or me and my husband , talking about how our day went and basically turning our home into a mad house but at 7pm it is time to start quieting down and the bedtime routines start.
• 7pm Leon and Libby go to bed first, then 8pm Drew follows , Sian and Philip then follow at 9pm and Kaiden ? Well we are still to detach the umbilical cord from him as we still find him sleeping in our bed . I have to be honest, once you get past three , you simply give up on the whole bedtime thing, Actually we were really lucky with the others but Kaiden seems to have been the only child that refuses to sleep in his own room no matter what we have tried although he sleeps in his own room for aunts and grandads.  
• While the children are in bed I then get another load in the washing machine and get back to the computer , either twitter chats or catching up on things I did not get done during them day and I try to finish by 10pm and if I am lucky I will be caught up so I get to chill in bed for a couple of hours earlier which is usually the case . My husband and Kaiden usually at this time spend time talking to bump and rubbing the belly as if I am a Buddha about to bring them some luck and hopefully fall asleep with the alarm set for the next morning.

See , the day is not so hectic , pretty much just the same as everyone else but we have more family included.
With organised washing machine routines and larger cooking pans , it means our family have a well organised routine and I think routine and a very good communication between me and my husband has to be our key to making it all work .

I get my own space each day while they are school and in bed and although I spend that time on my blog , I spend my time this way because I enjoy it and it is not every day. Sometimes on days when my husband has a day of , we go for a drive out to the shops or where ever we need to go and so it means I am still going to have the time to be mum to a new born , what choice do I have?
We have to make time, I said the same when I only had one child then two and so on.

At the moment , bump is already getting so much of my time and attention.

Each morning I wake up with wriggling in my tummy and I have a little stroke then when I get back from school and sit down I sometimes play lullabies to him as he really likes to listen to music .
All the children especially Kaiden and Drew spend as much time stroking and talking to their baby brother while in between their routines of the day and at night time me and my husband have a little connection time with bump together .
We play music, stroke, massage , talk to bump and dance it is all we can do until he arrives .

At weekends my husband ensures that he is not working and so we use this time to take trips out or spend it as a family and in summer it is our most relaxing time as we can get out to beaches or national parks more.
Last week , we ended up going on a last minute drive to Washington for my husbands Fathers Day gift then to Sunderland for a walk around the shops and some dinner then ended up in Toys R us giving the kids the task to finding a toy each with a strict budget each and of course we bought bump something to ready for his arrival from the Babies R us section (I love that place , I get to enjoy being a child and mum all in one place ).
It is costly having so many children, my husband works hard so we can do and have the things we have and because we do not get weekends out as adults with friends or holidays abroad due to the fact they cost so much and we can not find somewhere that caters for us all in one hotel as well as quitting smoking , we do tend to get to enjoy at least one or two weekends out and about . 
It is a very rare occasion that my husband and I get our time with out the children , our last one was last September for our Anniversary .
We prefer to spend our time as a family and I know our routine will be knocked upside down when little one comes along but once again we will find time to fit everything in and each child will still get their own time with mum and dad and each other.

Most of all we will always love each and every one of our children and our time will always be spent doing what we can to ensure each child is loved and cared for , even if it does mean our home becomes an even longer conveyor belt for showers and bathroom visits, our connection to our children will still be as strong as it was when we held them for the very first time.