Hi, Just need to vent a little. Today was a rough day. I had this great day planned out for DD4, DD2 and baby. We were going to get lunch and go out and do some fun stuff. We never made it to our first destination.
DD4 is very high energy! She was bouncing off the walls so much right from the beginning that I was worried.
Oh, do I know your pain. I have a DS8, a DS6, and a DD4, so the age spread is the same.
We had to stop taking DS8 to restaurants when he was around 4 months old because of his behavior. He would fuss, fidget wildly, and even scream in his high chair. If we let him out, he'd crawl away and/or demand attention from us. No amount of attention was ever enough, and no toy could entertain him for long. This continued until he was around 5 (years, not months).
A couple weeks ago, I took all three to Whole Foods. The boys took off constantly and no amount of cajoling could get them to just STAY CLOSE and NOT GRAB THINGS. The aisles in that particular store are super-narrow and the whole place is so jam-packed with merchandise that finding them becomes an exercise in pain and suffering.
My DS6 takes off constantly to "go exploring." He's fully aware of what he's doing and knows he shouldn't, but he doesn't care because he thinks he might find a cool rock or a big pine cone. And to be fair, he usually does.
Don't even get me started on the two boys and their constant physical altercations. I arrived at school today and could hear DS6 howling at DS8 through the door.
My mother always says that my sisters and I were very high energy, and at some point she decided that having balls of high energy was better than having lumps of dough. I think of this idea sometimes, and it helps. A little.
It will also get better. Given that your baby is less than a year old, you're may still be in that part where handling three kids at once seems to be completely impossible. Going from one to two was so easy (for me) in comparison to going from two to three! If you're still there, I promise you this: things will get easier. And I also promise that they'll get easier to handle as they get older.
When DS8 was DS2weeks, I was at a shop one Saturday afternoon while my husband watched him. I saw all these families walking around, and they all looked so
normal. You know: well rested, calm, wearing clean clothes, and moving with purpose. I watched them pass by and felt like our family would never be like that and that I'd be still be feeding DS at 3 am when he was 16. Rationally, I knew this wasn't true, but I was exhausted and stressed out and I couldn't see how he'd ever get from point A (3 am feedings) to point B (walking, eating, and being able to fasten a seat belt by himself). And now I have a kid who eats dinner and then sleeps all night. He can also fasten his own seat belt (and then continue to antagonize his sibs...).
Have you thought about sending DD4 to day care for two days per week? In-home day care can be a great social outlet. My boys still go back to their day care house for the parties after school (e.g. the Valentine's Day party on Friday).
Val
The first time I asked her why she was not listening and she said that what she had to show me was so cool that she had to come out right away. She showed me a book on Egypt. I took her back to her room and told her again that she needed to stay there and let me get siblings to sleep. She came out again to ask a question, and again to tell me her finger hurt, and again to tell me about a book she was reading. She just will not stop. 
)
