Firstkid I hope you don't mind me hijacking your post, but I am in exactly the same situation as you. I had DD3 2 weeks ago, and I have a 4 1/4 year old and a 2 year old. This is only the second day that I have run solo with 3 kids - my mum left Saturday and my DH started a new job yesterday (and I had a bout of mastitis Sunday!) So far I have managed to get the essentials done (you know, food and stuff ) and have ventured out to take DD to dancing and to pick some things up from the shops.

The baby is easy, apart from the fact that she doesn't seem to like her bassinet at night time. It's the two older ones that I am struggling with! The constant fighting, hurting and general screaming between them is doing my head in! They can and do play nicely, but in the blink of an eye it can turn nasty. I know this is normal behaviour for these ages (the two year old has only found her horns in the last two weeks). Tiredness and diving hormones have meant that I am not coping with them as well as I would like to, and resorting to being a yelling, ranting and generally not-very-nice mummy. I get to the end of each day (and the same in later pregnancy) thinking I am just not doing a very good job with them. This is not the mummy I want to be.

I am just wondering, for those who have been there and done that (or are in the midst of it at the moment), did you use daily routines to get you through? How did you manage the fighting? Is there anything in particular you did to start your day well?

I have good intentions, thinking I will get super organised when the kids go to bed, but by then I am simply too tired! I really want to enjoy this time with my beautiful girls and feel like I am enriching them every day instead of 'putting out fires'.

Any ideas will be warmly welcomed

Karen