When is it the hardest?

In "mommy world" this question always floats around. When is it the hardest - when you go from no kids to one kid, one kid to two or two to three? I hear a lot of moms say it gets much easier when you go from two to three and beyond. But, since I don't have any personal experience with that I can only comment on the other 2 scenarios.

It was pretty stinking hard to go from having no kids to one! I really had no idea what I was in for, nor was I anywhere near ready to bring a baby home, especially when he was 3 weeks early. The procrastinator that I am I would've loved for him to be either right on time or even late. The more time to put it off the better. It didn't help that we had just moved into our new home a few weeks before so I barely had time to unpack. It all worked out though. His room wasn't anywhere near ready, but babies don't care if their stuff is put away as long as they have somewhere to sleep, something to poop in and someone to feed them. We had all of that taken care of - the rest of the stuff we dealt with as it came up.

Life those first couple of months with a newborn were pretty rough. Breastfeeding was much more difficult than I had ever imagined! I wasn't expecting it to hurt or that he would be attached to me for 8+ hours a day. I remember going into work to pick up my stuff when Ian was only a week old. Somebody asked me what it was like to be a lady of leisure now. I just laughed! I said "Well, instead of spending 8 hours a day at work I'm now spending 8 hours a day with a baby attached to my breast! " I don't call that leisurely. There were days where I would've much rather have been at work for 8 hours. At least there when you're done you get to go home and relax. I soon found out that there wasn't going to be much leisure with a newborn. Things eventually got easier. He started becoming a much more efficient nurser and he began to sleep longer. When he was 2 weeks old my dear friend, Gaileen, told me about Babywise. I got the book out of the library and devoured it. I was in desperate need of sleep. Several people told me that it could be a couple of years before he would sleep through the night. That thought depressed me. I don't function very well if I don't get my sleep! Babywise gave me a plan of action to help him start sleeping through the night by 8 weeks. Sure enough, he started getting 7-8 hours of sleep around 7-1/2 weeks of age. It was a lot of work and heart breaking at times as I listened to him cry it out. But, all of the hard work paid off. At 4 years of age he's still a terrific sleeper. He still takes one nap a day and sleeps about 11 hours at night.

So, that's what life was like going from no kids to one kid. Baby Jenna was born almost 9 weeks ago so now I've experienced going from one kid to two. Some aspects are definitely easier. I knew what to expect with breastfeeding and she's a great nurser so we had no problems there. I also knew the basics of Babywise so I knew that getting up a few times a night wouldn't last forever. In the last week or so she's been sleeping 7-8 hours at night - woo hoo!

Thank goodness she seems to sleep well at night because these last 8 weeks have been a roller coaster ride. Two weeks after she was born I had my first of four gall bladder attacks. Three weeks later I finally had it removed. It's taken almost another 3 weeks to recover. So, I've been physically exhausted.

I'm learning what it's like to have to split my time and attention between 2 kids instead of being able to focus solely on Ian. The house has become a wreck! Just when I start to straighten up I either have Ian asking for something or Jenna needing attention. I look around and think "man, what a pigsty" yet I have no energy to actually do anything about it. I'm sure eventually as Jenna gets older it will get better. It's funny to hear parents of older kids say that when they're little it's all physical, but as they get older it becomes all mental. They say they would rather go back to the days of the physical. Just for a day I think I would rather trade the physical for the mental just to get a break! Then when they're teenagers and I can't deal with the mental I'll trade back that day.