When I was pregnant with my daughter, and for almost 2 years after she was born, I had made up my mind that I was only having 1 baby. Ok, so I did that superstitious "ring game" (where you hang a ring above your wrist and it tells you how many kids and what sex) the day before I found out I was pregnant, and it said "one girl". So, there it was written in stone, one and done! After the rough labor and delivery and a rough transition into Mommyhood, I really decided we were only having one! My daughter rarely slept, breastfeeding was difficult, we had just moved and really had no social/ mommy network close by, and my husband was working crazy hours at his new job! It was really a depressing/trying time for us.
However, close to my daughters 2nd birthday, once we had molded her into well-behaved toddler (haha) we started having second thoughts about another baby. We decided to "pull the goalie" and see what happens. And the rest is history! We have been blessed with the ability to get pregnant very easily and we were announcing our pregnancy by my daughters 2nd birthday.
I will be honest, I had terrible feelings about the pregnancy at first, "what have we done, life was finally calming down, finally had some sort of schedule after 2 years of chaos and now we are starting all over again!?!?" I spent 9 ( I guess 10) months bracing myself for another c-section, a 24/7 screaming baby, sore nipples, no sleep, and a cranky, attention deprived toddler.
Needless to say, I have been completely surprised at how easy the transition from Mommy of 1 to Mommy of 2 has gone. Yes, the first 2 weeks or so were a little difficult, but once we got through those it was smooth sailing (knock on wood). My daughter seems to be adjusting well to having her brother around, and this baby actually SLEEPS!!! He rarely cries, only if he gets really hungry, and the breastfeeding has been easier (after a tough patch in the beginning).
I'm pretty sure I barely left the house for the first almost 3 months of my daughter's life, at least not by myself. When my son was 6 weeks old, I was already lugging both kids to my daughters swim lessons EVERY morning, read and pick storytimes, the library, hour drives to the doctor and to visit my mom, and it has actually been pretty easy...well it's exhausting, but both kids have been really great, so far.
I attribute the easy transition mostly to having 2 really great kids that amaze me everyday, but also to a change in my mindset. With my daughter, I would almost panic when days got rough, screaming In the grocery store, poop/spit up flying everywhere in my house, baby not sleeping. Pretty sure I cried almost as much as my daughter sometimes! Now when I'm in those situations, although they aren't easy, I try to stay calm, "laugh it off", and remind myself they grow up to fast that I need to enjoy EVERY minute with them. 3 years ago when my baby pooped up her back and out very crevice of her diaper I could probably be seen frantically trying to change her and get her in the bath. Now the baby poops up his back and around the corner, and my toddler and I have a good laugh about it, clean him up and move on with our day.
It's amazing how things change with your second child! So thankful for such an easy transition so far and my 2 beautiful happy babies!
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