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I am a working mother - with two boys under the age of five - have another child on the way and get little help from my husband due to his two jobs. No matter how much sleep I get, I'm always exhausted. HELP!!
My only advice is to simplify. If anyone wants to give you a hand, loose your pride and accept. Maybe you might find a high school girl who lives nearby you and could come over a couple of hours an evening to vacuum, dust, put clothes away - maybe she will even know how to make spaghetti.
For a while, I had three children under five. When my Steve was born (the youngest) we moved to Spain to be missionaries. And my husband was busy setting up a ministry and learning Spanish (no help for me). We had a lot of scrambled eggs, cold cuts (sliced turkey, cheese, etc.). Strictly kid food. Noodles and tuna was popular and you can make it in big batches and freeze several containers for those nights all you can think about is bed.
If you have any perfectionist tendencies, lose them. For discipline for the kids, call and order the tape, Helicopters, Drill Sergeants and Consultants and both your husband and you listen to it (make a back-up copy for one of you) 1 - 800 - 338 - 4065. This tape gives you info on how to raise up responsible children and if you and your husband are on the same wavelength, you will end up with more energy.
Make sure you and hubby are connecting somewhere during the day for at least 15 minutes of undivided time, or all of this effort will feel for naught. So: see if you can find some inexpensive help, put gourmet cooking on hold and get nutritious food in your tummies, make sure you are intentionally raising responsible children, both you and hubby listen to the tape and talk about goals for the kids and spend 15 minutes of quality time with hubby (if he doesn't want to, insist on counselling). I hope this helps.
Dr. Ginger Gabriel, Ph.D., M.F.T., is an author and speaker as well as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California. With Master of Arts degrees in counseling and missions and a Ph.D. in psychology, she has traveled to Asia, the Middle East and throughout North American giving her four-to fifteen-hour relationship and counseling skill-building seminars.
Her favorite pastimes are kayaking, quilting, hiking and reading novels. She is married to Dr. Stan Gabriel. They have three children and three grandchildren.