Navigating Another Newborn
What’s it like to go from one child to two?On this episode of Learn With Less, Ayelet ruminates on the first week home with a newborn, the second time around.Baby’s first days of life are amazing, but the first few weeks with a newborn are the hardest – even when you’ve done it before!Great resources we mentioned in this podcast episode (in order they were mentioned):Learn With Less: Music For Families AlbumThe Learn With Less™ CurriculumLeave an iTunes Review of the Learn With Less podcastConnect With Us:Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / PinterestBIG CHANGESWell, it has been quite a week here at the Learn With Less headquarters, as my family and I welcomed a new baby into our home. This is my second baby, but my first time becoming a mother to a new baby while living close to two sets of grandparents. I feel incredibly thankful to have the benefit of lots of extra help and very happy distraction for my toddler so that I can enjoy a few moments with just my new baby. I am also lucky to have had a VERY straightforward birth the second time around, and my physical self already feels better after a week than I did after 6 weeks with my first baby. I can see how that affects my emotional self, my ability to “roll with the punches,” and enables me to write down little thoughts and musings to be shared with you today!FIRST TO SECOND TIME AROUNDThe first time around, the early days and weeks of parenthood – in particular, motherhood, is often a blur of wonder and awe, vulnerability, feelings of elation mixed with absolute frustration. A new world where hormones and effects of sleep-deprivation rule, for better and for worse! For me, so far, the second time around feels similar… but I could call it a “lite version.”WHAT’S CHANGEDI trust myself more. I trust in the process of parenting an infant… I already know that there are tough stages, and I know that those inevitably end (always to be replaced by something else new and challenging in a different way!). More importantly, having done it before (albeit with a very different human being!), my partner and I have a nuanced sense of the fact that changes will come, as well as how they might look and feel. This knowledge helps me on so many levels, and while dealing with so many different parts of newborn-land, whether it’s sleep-related, feeding-related, or simply feeling like I know what feels “normal” or not. I can trust my gut. I know I’m not likely to break my baby. I also know that I’m incredibly lucky to even have the ability to sit and reflect on all this, to have had two healthy and relatively uncomplicated babies.“TIME TRAVELING”One thing that’s really been throwing me for a loop is what I’ve been referring to as “time traveling” – I sit here with this tiny baby, who often looks very similar to my first baby, and I’m taken back to those days with my first, remembering and recalling, comparing and contrasting, and activating something akin to muscle memory about how to hold him, how to move with him, how to calm him… And then I look up to see this GIANT of a toddler – this big boy who just over a week ago seemed still such a sweet little monster – running and giggling and thinking and talking… and I can’t quite believe that all of that happened so fast. I also cannot believe how HEAVY my big boy has become – the first time I picked him up after having my newborn, I felt he must have gained 10 pounds overnight. These moments of cognitive dissonance have taken me by surprise, and I’m finding it fascinating!HONEST TRUTHSOf course, there are moments – many moments – that are less than “fascinating” and more abou...