Consider Yourself Warned

A little more than two weeks ago, Baby G turned one-year-old. Now that he’s been around this long, I’ve been able to reflect on the past year and have come away with a couple of observations:

1) They don’t tell you how hard having the second baby is going to be. When we were expecting our first child, everyone warned us how many sleepless nights there would be, about the crying, etc. No one said anything when we decided to have a second one and now that we do I understand why: Schadenfreude. They all had more than one kid and wanted us to experience the pain, too. Having a second child is not just twice the work but cubed. You’ve got to have one eye on the four-year-old and one on the baby. Stop paying attention for one second and the little one will turn over the bowl of cat food and start to eat it, or maybe he’ll mount the long, treacherous staircase. There is no down time.

2) Yet, it’s amazing how much you love the second one. It’s a little different from the first because there aren’t as many surprises but it’s still fresh in most ways, getting to know the new baby, and seeing what kind of person he–in our case–is and is going to be. To be honest, I didn’t want another kid. We liked the first one so much I thought we should be content with the son we already had but Mama prevailed. Now, I can’t imagine life without our little butterball baby, his white hair, appetite for all kinds of food, and ever-present laugh.

That said, this past year has been one of the toughest stretches of time I’ve endured. Having a second child is definitely worth it, but it’s a bit like being hazed every day for months on end. Consider yourself warned.

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