Second Time Around

Since I have a lot of free time without a husband and little girl, I've decided to try and use this blog for what I initially intended it for. A medium for you to learn more about me and my family and a way for me to express my form of art...writing. Well, here goes nothing!

Being a young pregnant lady I tend to get a lot of unsolicited advice, mostly due to people thinking this is my first. When I'm finally able to get a word in and let them know this is my second, their tune changes and I'm asked what I'm going to do different. 

If you've met Mia you'll know she is a very easygoing, happy kid. I would love to say that's all thanks to Zed and my amazing parenting, but the more I see other kids her age I think it's a lot of her own disposition. We were concered about having the epitome of a "first child" simply because Zed and I are both firsts. We didn't worry that she didn't always match, we took a lot of cues from her (shoes, socks, clothes, food, etc) and tried to only impose when necessary (mostly sleep). Zed, of course, was much better at this than me, letting her eat dirt and treating her like a trained cheerleader. 

So are we going to change our parenting techniques, not intentionally, but each child is different and we will again take the cues and proceed from there. 

There are some things that we've learned. We have already bought a swing that can go from left to right or front to back. Mia did not like a rocking chair so when we couldn't console her, we were on our feet swaying side to side, hopefully the swing will help with this. There are elastic bands that you can get personalized with your child's name and then they fit nicely on bottles. This is a  necessity sending our kids to the base daycare, names must be permanently displayed. We got these for Mia eventually and it made life a little easier. We also know to bring a few different sized outfits to the hospital to bring the baby home in. Poor Mia was so tiny she was swimming in the newborn clothes we had brought, we'll be bringing at least one preemie outfit this time around.

As far as the momma goes, I have eaten less and worked out about the same amount (3-5 times per week). With Mia I gained a ton of unnecessary weight and unfortunately did not lose it all prior to getting pregnant the second time. This time, as of 18wks in, I have only gained 6lbs! I will be bringing more clothes for me to the hospital and changing into them as soon as I can! I didnt know that was allowed :) I'm going to worry about myself a little more this time, making time to work out even if that means I have to ask for help. The final and most important thing I'm changing this time is not letting work get between me and feeding the little one. Work combined with getting pregnant, Mia made the switch to formula a little sooner than I had wanted.

I know I will still want to change things after this baby and I will always be learning, but my goal is to never stress and just love my little ones with all I have. I am truly blessed to have a little girl who is so easygoing, a husband who puts up with my crazy antics, and for the opportunity to be a new mom again.