I never believed those statements of how different you act as a parent with each additional child. I always figured that I would treat each pregnancy the same...each moment the same...each everything the same. In my mind I was going to be different than those statements. Oh how wrong I was.
Case in point - By the time Emily was born I had submitted 10 blog posts. This blog post is sadly the first blog post I've written about Mr. Jacob. He's 6 month's old. Ouch!
Other differences:
Emily: Her bedroom was completed by week 30 of my pregnancy. Room painted. Furniture placed. Clothes washed, hung, and folded. Hours and hours of work. Everything completed.
Jacob: By week 30...32...35...oh and week 37 it was painted (never mind the fact that it was painted only because I painted it last year for fostering/adopting). I justified my laziness with telling myself that he would sleep with us for a while anyways. It worked.
Emily: Purchased clothes, blankets - oh and I
NEEDED a crib bumper and blanket. Had to have it
ALL.
Jacob: I spent most of my pregnancy assuming that I had blankets up in the attic I could use. I didn't even pull anything out until maybe week 36...37. I finally purchased some sheets when I put the crib together. Jacob
might have arrived a few short days later.
Emily: I read the books and waited with complete anticipation for my weekly pregnancy updates to pop up in my email.
Jacob: "Snap! Did that just say 'You're 32 Weeks!!'???"
Emily: Baby shower. Yes please!
Jacob: No thanks. Please don't go through that hassle...
Emily: Hospital bag packed around 30 weeks.
Jacob: Shoot...by week 32 I had decided what kind of yoga pants I wanted to buy for my stay. Never actually bought them though. I was sure I had plenty of time. At 38 weeks my partially packed bag traveled with me to the hospital...and I may have been running around my house finishing that up as my water was breaking.
Emily: Major pain. *Ring ring..."Hello, Dr. Wagner!"
Jacob: Aaaa...that's just my skin-being-ripped-apart. No worries. I'll just take 2 Tylenol and call the doctor tomorrow if it doesn't go away.
Emily: Braxton Hicks. Pull out the stop watch. Monitor. Count.
Jacob: Hmmm...Short. Check. Sporadic. Check. Baby moving. Check. All Good!
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The only thing that was very similar was how uncooperative these children were on keeping with my "plans". Although Emily did wait until week 40, she decided to come in her usual dramatic fashion bringing with her one emergency c-section, lots of NICU doctors and nurses and quite a bit of panic on my end. Jacob was a bit less "emergency", but he did decide to liven up my down-to-the-minute planning for work, cleaning, and prepping by coming one-week early at 38 weeks. I was sure that there would be no panic this second time around. I was prepared for the c-section and I knew what to expect. However, all that went out the door as I jumped out of bed at 9:30 pm hyperventilating "NO...NO...NOOO!!!" My plans were dashed as I stood in amniotic fluid and I officially started working on my speech that I would deliver to him about being obedient.
Sadly I forgot the words to that speech as soon as I saw him (I kind of fell in love). I'm sure it would have been one epic speech.
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Jacob was born at 12:43 am on March 4, 2015. He came in weighing 4 lbs 15 oz and in complete perfect health. We instantly fell in love and our worries on his size were quickly calmed as the tune in the operating room remained positive. We were in LOVE.
Emily was gushing with pride and beaming with excitement when she entered the hospital room. She didn't hold him for too long, but she was excited with the idea of being a big sister and she was especially excited to spend the night in the hospital room. She also was the only one who was sad to leave a few short days later.
