Ages + Stages

I'm not going to lie, life with 2 children under 2 years of age is quite the whirlwind, to say the least. My 2 sons, Harrison and Benjamin, are 18 months apart. I thought life was going by crazy fast...

It was like with putting my second baby down "drowsy but awake" - I'm going to decide to do this, be smart about it, and make it work. And so I did. Have I faced blunders? Absolutely. But I did my research - aside from Dr. Google, I read 2 books and spoke to several parents who did it or are doing it firsthand. And here is what I've learned from the so-called "myths", fears, and misconceptions listed above:

I remember watching all my friends get pregnant while waiting to conceive.  I remember every negative pregnancy test.  I remember how long my pregnancies felt.  I counted the weeks one by one, waiting impatiently for the little wonders to arrive.  But suddenly it’s over, and I miss their little kicks inside my belly.  Because waiting, and pregnancy, is temporary. 

When they first started happening, I didn't even realize what was happening.  I thought she was having a really bad dream.  After multiple nights in a row, we knew that these were not just regular nightmares.  They are far worse than that.

I love story time.  Story time was one of first activities I brought my girls to when I became a stay-at-home-mom.  I have only had the opportunity to attend the story time at the Weyers Hilliard Library in Howard. But, there are many different story times offered throughout the Brown County Library System.

Parenting is hard and requires a sense of humor.  It also doesn’t hurt to ask for a little divine intervention once in a while.  Thus, we pray as a family before dinner, and the adorable prayers of my twin three-year-olds are both entertaining and impressive. 

I went into the final days of my 42 week pregnancy armed with hopes and plans of what my experience as a new mom would be like. I arrived at the hospital on my induction date with a nervous smile and the naive expectations only first-time moms possess. The construction of my carefully laid out birth plan took hours of classes and research to complete and it likely wound up covered in coffee rings as a coaster at the nurses’ station.

How many times have you heard the phrase, “I want a baby” uttered? Or how often has someone asked to hold your baby or told you how sweet your baby is? Baby fever is all over (especially when you are trying to have one yourself). I remember the days of holding friends’ babies, while longing for children of my own. The one thing that didn’t cross my mind at the time, while smelling those sweet newborns and kissing those squishy cheeks, was how short of a time period a baby is actually a baby.

All three of my kids lived on breastmilk for the first year of their lives.  I feel fortunate that my twins were born at 37 weeks, but they were not good at latching.  I exclusively pumped and bottle fed them, and had to work very hard to produce enough milk.  I tried every trick in the book, but pumping consistently was the only sure way to increase my supply.  My youngest was great at breast feeding so I breastfed and pumped for the first year.  I had no trouble producing enough for one baby since my body had been “trained” to produce enough for two.

From the moment my daughter was born, I expected belly issues. Her big sister had this nursing mama on a dairy free, egg free, shellfish free diet for 5 months. I thought those would be the longest 5 moths of my life! (How could this Wisconsin girl go without her cheese?) But what I didn’t expect was that my second baby wouldn’t outgrow these issues.