Second Time Around

Today while I was chatting with my sister on Skype about pregnancy and baby care (she is due with her first in August!) and I got to thinking about how different it has been to have a baby the second time around... For me some of the main differences this time are:

• Natalie has been sleeping in her room since she was a couple of days old and so I don't hear every little grunt and jump up to see if she is ok. Abigail started out in our room and was in and out of our room and bed for the better part of a year. (She can still be sound in our bend sometimes 6am for an hour or so just so I don't have to get up.)
• I haven't been using a baby monitor this time either, I just leave our bedroom door cracked and hers open and I hear her right away. With Abigail I was so uptight I used a monitor when she was just feet away from us across the hall...Natalie's crib is probably less that ten feet from our bed.
• Natalie has nursed perfectly from the day she was born....she latched on in the delivery room and I had to cut her off after 45 minutes! Abigail on the other hand struggled to latch on and nurse which caused all sorts of problems that I won't get into...ouch!
• Natalie sleeps! I never really believed people when they said their baby had been sleeping through the night since they were a month old or whatever. But seriously Natalie has been sleeping a 6-7 hour stretch since she was 3 weeks old and she has gone up to 10 hours several times!
• I'm not a sleep-deprived, over protective nut-case. I am able to enjoy little Natalie Rae because of this. I now know that babies grow up way to quickly and I cherish my time nursing and rocking Natalie instead of going crazy and feeling trapped in the rocking chair like I felt with Abigail. (I helps that Natalie doesn't need to be held and rocked forever like Abigail did!)
• Natalie is fussy but not super fussy. Natalie had a few weeks that she was really fussy but ever since she's been on antibiotics for her ear infection she's been much better and has a nightly fussy time from about 8-10pm but it's now too bad. Abigail was really fussy for her first two months until we figured out her milk allergy, then she was like a new baby.
• Natalie takes a bottle without much trouble. I learned my lesson with Miss Abigail and I have purposely left Natalie several times so she'd have to take a bottle. I tried with Abigail but truthfully I didn't leave her very long at a time when she was this young. I always felt to guilty that she would cry. I now know that it's good for both of us to be away from each other for a couple hours now and then. It's also been great for my marriage, I am able to leave and have fun without being overly worried and have a good time with my man.