Is it easier the second time around?

LongIsland.com

A friend of mine, pregnant and expecting her second child asked me, "is it easier the second time?" and we both giggled--she out of nervousness, me out of "knowing." For me the answer is both ...

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A friend of mine, pregnant and expecting her second child asked me, "is it easier the second time?" and we both giggled--she out of nervousness, me out of "knowing."

For me the answer is both yes and no. My two boys, Luc (7yrs) and Max (21 mos) are completely different from each other. This poses both good and bad challenges. On the one hand, every way my first born was a pain in the ya-know, my second is a breeze. Of course, there's the flip side to that one.



Sleeping



Luc slept great and went to bed on his own for both naps and night time without screaming and crying. I assumed it was my gentle wonderful parenting style. As it turns out, this same exact method didn't work on my second born and we wound up having that little guy in our bed for nearly the first year of his life. He didn't start sleeping through the night until 21 months old (that's about two weeks ago if you're keeping track--and no, I haven't lost the dark circles yet). It's been a long sleepless road.




Not as Anxious



Things that made me anxious the first time really didn't affect me this time. I remember being in a panic whenever I'd change his diaper as a newborn. He'd scream his head off and I was totally frantic. The second time around I'd be making telephone calls at the same time. There are certainly things you blow off as "been there, done that."




A Little too Confident?



Be careful though--I was probably a little too cocky. Max was screaming all night (of course, he was always screaming at night.. so that was hard to see anyway.). My first son never had ear infections so this was new for me. He didn't pull at his ears--he just screamed his head off one night and even though he was in our bed with us, he was arching his back and seemed in pain. I took him in and found out he had a double ear infection.




A New Plan



The differences are both great and a problem. What worked for the first one doesn't work for this one. While my older son was always calm and so well-behaved, my younger one has an incredible amount of energy. I haven't seen the inside of a store in a long time. So, I've given up the shopping thing for online shopping. It's probably cheaper anyway--I don't impulse buy on the Internet.


2005, Claudine M. Jalajas