Mummascribbles – When both children need you simultaneously – Mummascribbles

I always wondered how it worked, juggling two children’s needs. 

I mean, there is one of me and two of them. There would be times when they both need me and so I often thought about how I would manage their expectations. The expectations from Zach that I have always been there for him over the last four years and the expectations from Oscar that when he cries, mumma is there.

Most of the time these things happen seperately. On the odd occasion I have been caught out in the daytime with both of them crying, or Zach needing a number two whilst Oscar is in the middle of feeding. But until this week, I had yet to experience this issue at night.

It was Monday night. 

Zach woke up and needed a wee. The other half was downstairs changing Oscar’s nappy before he was going to be bringing him up to bed. This meant that Oscar was deeply unhappy. Zach was also deeply unhappy with having to get up for a wee. After I got back upstairs with him (our bathroom is downstairs), he asked me to snuggle into bed with him – which I did – sadly with the knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to stay because Oscar would be up and needed feeding at any moment and I’d therefore have to go to him. 

It didn’t go that way though!

After telling Zach that Daddy was on his way up, and that I would need to swap with him so that I could go and feed Oscar, he said no. He wanted me not daddy. And there started the tears…as more tears were coming up the stairs for me! 

And so, at that moment, I had to feed Oscar on Zach’s bed whilst I stroked my biggest boy’s head as he drifted off back to sleep. 

It’s not like I have never done this before. I feed Oscar regularly while we are doing bedtime and on a Tuesday night especially since I am usually on my own with them both. But this is the first time that Zach hasn’t accepted daddy as a replacement for me when Oscar has also needed me and me only. It’s happened where I’ve fed Oscar in the night and then Zach has woken up as Oscar has just gone back to sleep, but I haven’t had them both crying for me at the same time (or in Zach’s case, about to have a meltdown!). 

It’s always important for me to show Zach that I am still his. With Oscar being exclusively breastfed, I can often find myself saying that I can’t do something because I need to feed Oscar. But sometimes my biggest boy just wants his mumma and so I have to work around it so both of them feel the love!