Alexis McMullin (@alexismaymcmullin) is a happily married mother of Penny and her newborn August. She loves all things fashion, beauty, interior design, minimalism, and travel. She is constantly on the move but her current principal residences include Hawaii and Chicago.
Which is more challenging: having your first child or having your second? When I was expecting my second baby, I asked this question to probably 20 people and the responses were split 50/50. Everyone had a different opinion. Some said the first baby was hard on its own; others said it was harder to bring a second little one home. All I knew was that I didn’t know what to expect!
So what do I think now?? Well, I think everyone is right. I think they’re both hard in different ways!
Challenges of Baby #1
When you have your first baby, you just don’t really know what to do. I thought I knew what to expect and do (after all, I had little siblings, a niece, and friends with kids). But I never knew what it was like to get my baby to latch. I never really knew the anxiety of wanting to make sure my baby was healthy. I never knew how it felt to recover, how often to feed her at night, when to give her solids, what to do when she was constipated, and so many other things.
The biggest challenge with baby #1 was adjusting to the learning curve of parenthood and developing a new sense of normal in everyday life.
Bringing Home Baby #2
Now when my second was born, I already knew all the things I didn’t know with my firstborn, so it was the easiest thing in the world! When you have a toddler, it’s easy to forget that newborns just lay there most of the time. It’s amazing!
But I never expected how hard it was going to be to balance a two-year-old who just had their world crumble before them and a newborn who needed me so fully. I didn’t know how to balance taking care of two babies instead of one, especially while I was still recovering and waking up through the night. It was hard. Worth every second, but hard.
Which is Harder?
So which do I think was harder? I think they’re both tough, but both beautiful. I remember being so emotional the last few months before my second was born, thinking how that was the best time of my life. It was. But now, I think the best time of my life is now, having both of my babies. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.