And Then There were Two (Or how going from one to two kids was so much easier)

I wondered my entire pregnancy with Officer Owl if going from one to two kids was an easier transition than going from no kids to one kid.  I googled it, asked my friends, stressed, pulled out my hair.  Well you get the picture.  And I always came up with the same thing.  It just depends on you and the kids.

I am here to say for me it was far easier to go from one to two.  I think a lot of it was I knew what to expect the second time around.  I mean no you can't know what your baby will be soothed by or hate, what their personality will be like, if they will sleep at night.  (I talk about sleep a lot.  I like sleep.  And yet, the only time I have to blog is at night when I should be sleeping.  It is a problem haha.)  But you already have a ton of soothing mechanisms up your sleeve.  You know that crying will not harm your child while you go pee or eat a sandwich.  You also know that while sleep deprivation sucks, you will make it through and one day sleep again.  Even if it takes 15 months to happen regularly.  ::glares at Destructo::

I credit Destructo with a lot of the ease with which I took to being a mom to two.  He is such a high spirited, high maintenance, high energy, honey badger of a boy.  I love him with every fiber of my being, but he is hard.  Hard to handle, loud, full of destructive energy.  It is hard getting out smarted by a three year old on the regular and being questioned on any and every thing you say.  But having him as my first child made me realize that I could probably handle anything the second baby threw my way.  I think going from one to two would have been much harder if I had a super easy, calm, low maintenance baby for a first child.  (Dayna you are screwed if you are reading this.  Sloth boy version 2.0 surely won't happen and you won't know what to do with yourself with a honey badger hahaha.  At least you also have Destructo preparing you in case it happens.)

Colic was hard.  The never ending screams made for a miserable household for six weeks.  But even during those rough days, motherhood was still easier the second time around.  I think because I knew that this two would pass.  That one day Owl would no longer be a newborn and it would be easier.  I knew that I would make it.  That life would be awesome again soon.

And it is.  Awesome I mean.  Okay that isn't true.  Life with the baby is pretty darn awesome right now.  There are hard days when he wakes numerous times each night and I am low on patience all next day and even lower on sleep.  But overall it is awesome.  A lot of nights we only have one wake up at night.  He is a fairly calm baby so far.  He eats, plays, starts fussing, and then goes to sleep.  He sleeps when we are out and about which Destructo never did from a young age.  He is a snuggler and a cuddler (which again independent Destructo never did.)  It is so nice to get a cuddler.  He has the biggest smile that just lights up his whole face.  He is a very happy baby.  Those smiles make it all worth it.  

So for all you moms who had your world rocked when had your first baby, just know it can be easier the second time around.  Having Owl around actually makes me feel like I am rocking motherhood a lot of days.  I am so glad to have him in my life.  It makes our family more balanced because Destructo true to his name makes me feel like I am failing miserably at motherhood more than once a day.  For example, he was refusing to get ready for nap because he hadn't eaten lunch yet.  You know the lunch he had refused to eat.  So I set a timer and gave him an extra ten minutes since I hate for him to go to bed hungry.  I also sternly told him he was not to let his butt leave the chair or else he would lose his ten minutes and go straight to bed.  

Yeah I went to change the baby's diaper.  I came back just as Mr. Destructo was walking in the door from work.  He asked what Destructo was doing.  I came out to see Destructo running around with his chair held onto his butt.  He did not disobey me at all.  I told him not to let the chair leave his butt.  He didn't.  He held it firm.  He is slick like that.  And outsmarts me regularly.  Yep he wins regularly.  But he always keeps me smiling. 

Ahh motherhood.  If you don't go insane from lack of sleep, you will surely go insane by the terrible two's and terrorist three's.  If you survive all that, you still have the teen years to push you right over the edge.  :)

So which transition did you find easier?  Zero to one or one to two?