3's Company

Today I was showered, fed, and had my teeth brushed by 2 pm. That is a good day. Especially the shower part. It feels like The Phi was a newborn for a week. Like all of a sudden she was a toddler, sleeping through the night and eating meals when we eat. Louella's first 5 weeks of life have felt like 5 years. She eats about every 3 hours. Usually about midnight, 3 am, 6 am, 9 am, Noon, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm, and back to midnight. This schedule has left us with very bad bedtime habits. Since when 10:30 comes around we figure Lou is going to be awake soon so might as well stay up. So we do. Then we go to bed after her midnight feeding and stay in bed until after her noon feeding. See...bad habits.

There is a huge difference between then and now. Now I also have a 5 year old. Last time I could really sleep when the baby slept. This time when the baby sleeps I am feeding, playing with, bathing, getting dressed, etc, etc... The Phi. Now I am trying to spread my time between my girls. Right now I feel horrible because a majority of my time is spent with Louella and having to tell The Phi...

" not right now"
"maybe later"
"no we can't"

Of course The Phi being the happy go lucky kid that she is seems to be okay with it all. But I still go to sleep every night feeling like a failure. How do Mom's deal with this? I know it will get easier as Louella gets older, but how do we deal with the right now?