I'm hoping to share our birth story soon - when I have time and two free hands to type more. One thing I know for sure is that I went into the process naively thinking that the second time would be more or less the same as the first. Boy was I wrong. Here are some of the biggest surprises I had bringing Joshua into the world.
1. Yes, I'd done it before, just 2.5 years before but it's incredible how much you forget; the different stages of pregnancy, the pains, how tiny they are, how much longer it takes to change an uncooperative newborn who doesn't 'point their toes' or 'put their arms up'.
2. The after pains. I barely remember them from the first birth but they were as bad as some of the contractions this time. Apparently they get stronger with each birth and women who have four or five births behind them say that they get worse than the labour itself.
3. Boys are different! Apart from the obvious physical differences (I've been peed on several times already), both he and I have rashes from the hormones and apparently boys are louder.
4. The red tape. I saved the paperwork we had to fill out with Isabella to help us out this time but in just 2.5 years the birth certificate application process, the child benefit form, the medical tests, and who knows what else have changed.
5. It's harder with two. I've often wondered how single parents cope, now I'm in complete awe. If Nico hadn't had paternity leave, I'd never have managed. Friends had warned me and it's true, the hardest thing about parenting two is not being able to satisfy both children all the time. It's a good learning curve for us all though.
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