Left: “Sweet potato, on a spoon? dear god mum you animal -ABSOLUTELY NOT!!” Right: “The same sweet potato but off your finger? RIGHT ON, I will now lick the bowl clean!!!”
And there I was, left feeding my 5 month old a whole bowl of sweet potato with my finger. I couldn’t help but laugh and think if this was Evie I would not be doing it, but now it’s ANYTHING to make sure she eats the bowl quick and easy never mind “the correct way”. THAT is second child syndrome.
I absolutely love learning from my girls, what better way than to learn a BRUTAL lesson about yourself than creating a miniature version of you who gives as good as she gets?!!! It is amazing what having a child teaches you though, not only becoming a parent but also how to act yourself. They are so care free, resilient, happy and easy to please (at times!!) it makes you really look at the simpler things in life an learn to take pleasure from it again.
So, I had my first, Evie, at age 20 with baby daddy Shaun. She turned our world on its head, in the best way, but it was a huge shock to the system. Gone were the lie ins and care free attitude, if I heard “remember the time when you used to be able to just get out of a car without unpacking everything you need” one more time I was going to freak. Learning to deal with organising another life dependant on yourself, bottles, food, nappies, illnesses, clothes, baby grows -sooo many baby grows- all seemed hard work and chaotic at the time. Every movement she made was to worry over, developmental stages had to be met and of course “tummy time every day” where she’d scream cause NO BABY LIKES TUMMY TIME. It was life changing in a way that it really did change every single aspect of your life and you realise how you have so much more to worry about and be concerned over.
Being a second child though, I’d always heard of the phrase “ah it’s the second child syndrome”, but having my first not being able to see how I would be any different with a second. Along came Elsie, age 22 and our family of 4…and 2 bloody dogs later…is complete. And it really is completely different, I love them both equally and they are both my whole entire world, but there is a significant difference. With your first you are dealing with the huge changes that happen in your life, you are FAR more concerned with reading everything, checking everything and watching every movement. With your second you get to really enjoy every single second. You’re used to being tired, you’re used to all the menial jobs that just have to be done and they just continue to happen while you enjoy your new little bundle much more care free. Bottle washing with my first used to be done with military precision, it was something that had to be organised and understood or you just weren’t good enough to complete the task. IT WAS STRESSFUL, I mean, the bottles had to be washed AND sterilised and READY FOR BABY on time!!! (Yeh, really I used to stress over it ???) Now, I look back and laugh at what the hell I even had to stress about when now its more like, “aw I’ll have to do the bottles” **escapes crazy 2 year old tearing up living room and terrorising sister for a 10 minute break and some potential alone time**
It’s an amazing learning curve from one baby to two and I cannot WAIT to see if this last few months of the “terrible two’s” has imparted any wisdom for when it’s time for Elsie to go through this? If not, I will probably flee the country.
Over sharing is caring! 