How do you make meals when you have a toddler and a baby?!

[Flingmoo]

We have a 2.5 year old and I am expecting a new baby in May. At the moment we're now at the point where my son can sit nicely and watch TV or potter around with his toys with minimal supervision while I cook. However, I normally try and wait until DH comes home so one of us can supervise him while the other one cooks.

DH may be starting a new job meaning he wont arrive home til at least 6pm. This will be far too late to wait for him to come home before I start to cook. I will become a SAHM as we're moving abroad and his salary will comfortably support us.

How will I cope with making a family meal when I have a toddler to supervise AND a baby to care for? Millions of women around the world do it so it must be possible but I can't think how and I'm starting to get anxious about it! We like to have mealtimes together so I am reluctant to start feeding DS a simple toddler meal at 5pm and cooking properly in the evening. We used to do that when DS was a baby and it really drags out the amount of time spent cooking and clearing up, I also found myself giving him really rubbish meals rather than the same variety we eat.

Please tell me how the hell it's done?!

[FATEdestiny]

Second (and subsequent) babies are much easier to cope with than firstborns. Life won't be nearly as busy and steessful as you remember with your first because you'll know what to expect this time.

Cook meals either while baby is sleeping or while foot bouncing baby in bouncy chair in middle of kitchen.

[MrsCurly]

You can also batch cook at weekends and freeze portions. And there are lots of tasty and nutritious meals which can be made very quickly and easily.

• omelettes, scrambled eggs, etc
  

• past with quick sauces - e.g. half some tomatoes, roast in the oven for 20 minutes, you could also add peppers or some chopped salami. Or with carbonara - that's super quick to make
  

• sausages or chicken pieces the you just chuck in the oven for 20 minutes which you could have with rice and a salad
  

• baked potatoes - nothing could be easier
  

etc

[YokoUhOh]

I used to cook with DS2 breastfeeding in sling, DS1 watching tele. I'm all about the multitasking.

[Flingmoo]

Thanks this is reassuring. I realised as it will be summer we will also be able to hve lots of quickly thrown together salads, cheeses and cold meats etc rather than hot cooked meals. So that will help.

Yoko I think I did that occasionally with my first but I am a bit worried about doing too much cooking while babywearing as I've hear horror stories about burns etc. I suppose simple prep stuff can be done safely though.

[Mummyreindeerlegz]

I had a two year old and a baby. Two year old played in play room or sat in high chair (mountain buggy clip on table thing) and coloured / talked to me and the baby went in a swing chair on the floor (this was the other side of the table from the cooker, we have a large kitchen) or was in his Moses basket or I left him on the play mat and went back and forth.

[mammyoftwo]

slow cooker