Thoughts on becoming a mother of two and a great resource for mothers and mothers-to-be. I’m honored to be a Similac Strong Moms Ambassador, a sponsored blog partner, this year.
Mentally preparing for a baby is a hard thing to do. Before I had Liam, I spent hours trying to imagine what it’d all be like and how I would handle everything. None of it was as I imagine: some good and some bad. Now that I’ve been through it all once before, I’m becoming anxious about doing it all over again and this time all while taking care of a toddler.
I’m not going to lie, I’m terrified. Liam wasn’t the best infant. He would be up for half the night, so I would simply sleep when he slept. This meant sleeping from 4am-noon most days. However, if baby #2 has a similar sleeping pattern, I will literally get 3 hours of sleep every day. I’m not so sure how I’m going to handle that.
What’s more, is how am I going to juggle loving two children at once?
Before we had Liam, we just had our dog, Leland. At one point in time we decided we would adopt a playmate for Leland. We had the adopted dog for about 1 week and never could learn to ‘love’ her the way we loved Leland. I know dogs and children are completely different, but it makes me nervous to share the love. And to take it even further, I didn’t fall in love with our son, Liam, for many, many weeks after he was born. I battled postpartum depression, which didn’t help any. But, I would hear of all these mothers who fell instantly in love with their babies in the hospital.
To this day, I still can’t imagine feeling that sort of love so soon. My relationship with Liam, was quite love/hate until we got used to each other, months after he was born. Of course, now I can’t imagine life without Liam and love him to pieces…even when he screams at the top of his lungs in Whole Foods or intentionally slams my favorite dishes on the ground, breaking them into several pieces.
In all seriousness, I’m not quite sure how I’m going to handle it all. How do I show Liam the same love and attention I’ve been showing him these past 2.5 years and balance that all with a little baby who is 100% relying on me to survive? And to freak me out even more, plenty of women I trust have told me that going from having one child to two children is the hardest transition I’ll ever go through. Oh geeze. Commence the freak out session again!
Do you have any advice for a mother-to-be of two children?
Thankfully, I have a supportive family and wonderful husband, who will be my rocks. I’m also thankful that I live in a day and age that I can have my nerves calmed and questions answered within minutes, thanks to the good old internet. One that I’ve been a member of for a while and have benefited from has been the Similac Strong Moms. They have all the weekly and monthly guides to both pregnancy and baby development, guides from nutrition during pregnancy, breastfeeding, supplementing and even a community forum to help answer your specific questions. As an added bonus, they send you coupons, samples and goodies! Click here for more information about becoming a member of the Similac Strong Moms.
