Margot,

The first three months were chaotic as I had no idea what Olivia needed and I was trying to establish a flexible routine with her and get her to be able to self settle, so I pretty much put all work on hold and did the bare minimum, which was OK as I had hardly any work lined up anyway.

From when she was 4 months until just recently I have been working on a big consultancy job with the NT government and it has been a big workload. I always swore I would only work whilst she was asleep, which worked really well, as she sleeps brilliantly in the day (2 x 2x hours at least). So it wasn't often I had to do catch-up at night. (And luckily DH understands. Doesn't like it much, but understands).

So with just one baby, it worked really well. But Olivia is, I think, an "easy" baby.

Since I got pg again I found that it was a lot harder to stay motivated as I was v.tired in my first tri, with running round after Olivia and needing my own afternoon nap!

But, with just one, it is easy to juggle.

I have a feeling having a 17 month old and a newborn will be very very different though.........I have just knocked back a big consultancy, sadly, because I kind of know I won't be able to manage it all............