Becoming A Parent. For The Second Time...

From the moment that you start considering (or find out that you're unexpectedly expecting) baby number two, your head starts brimming with questions. 

Will I cope? Will I love this second baby as much as my first? Is that even possible? Will I know what to do? Will I actually manage?

The answer to all of the above is, YES!

You know how you worried the first time around? And you know how you adapted? Well, you'll do it again. And you'll be wiser.... ish. 

First-time: You spend virtually every day leading up to your little one's arrival cramming every piece of information about birth, babies, breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, bathing and bed-sharing into your ditsy pregnancy brain. You study magazine articles and books and Internet forums, absorbing every piece of parenting advice and information. You're confused by conflicting information and opinions. What is best? What if I get it wrong? Based on your new textbook knowledge, you plan everything from the birth to the bedtime routine before you even feel a twinge.

Second-time: You decide to totally wing it.

First-time: You're petrified about labour. 

Second-time: You're still petrified about labour.

First-time: You're bombarded with congratulatory gifts and cards and flowers and baby clothes and hand-me-downs and soft toys and visits and offers of help. There's barely room in your house for it all. Everyone, from your third-cousin-twice-removed to the neighbour you had for a while when you were a kid, is so excited for your first baby! 

Second-time: You get a couple of texts. And your gran sends you a card. Your gran sends you a card for everything, though.

First-time: You wonder how you're ever going to survive on so little sleep.

Second-time: You wonder how you ever survived on so little sleep. 

First-time: You go through dozens of clothing changes a day as your dribbling, teething baby soaks through vest after vest after vest. How can something so small leak so much from it's gummy chops? Just how?!

Second-time: You actually understand the need for a good-quality, highly-absorbent dribble bib, and realise just why Skibz have won so many awards. Those bibs are genius! 

First-time: You take everyone's advice, and try to 'nap when baby naps.'

Second-time: Your first baby doesn't understand the concept of napping when their younger sibling naps. They want to play dinosaurs. You accept that naps are a thing of the past, and crawl around unenthusiasticly, exhaustedly, pretending to be a dinosaur.

First-time: You keep everything from hospital tags to first birthday cards, and present them neatly in a scrap book. You document everything; first smile, first tooth, first steps, first words. Every milestone fills you with pride, and you can remember the exact dates on which they were achieved. 

Second-time: Every reached milestone fills you with pride, but do you have time to document it? Pfft! What was their first word again?

First-time: You fall into a love like one you've never felt before. 

Second-time: That love grows.