The Parenting Thread • Page 31

Congrats! Now the naming process begins!

 

We've already decided, haha.

 

Welp, nevermind! Are you sharing it with anyone?

Also how old is the other one? What's the age difference going to be? I have a brother 11 months older and a sister 6 years younger, not sure which I prefer.

 

Also, how is this guy not even 2 yet? He's huge and acts like a 4 year old.

 

We're going with Violet.

Our son is 3. By the time the daughter is born next year, he'll be 2 months shy of 4. This was kind of the plan all along, and I realize that we are lucky to have had everything go according to plan.

 

Both my kids, we didn't name until hours after they were born. My son's name is Hudson - a name that was FAR down our list and my daughter's name is Harlow, which wasn't a name in contention until a few days before her birth.

Come to think of it, we did the same thing when we got our dog, Marvin. We didn't name him until hours after we brought him home.

 

I LOVE the name Harlow! Plan to name our 2nd girl Harlow. Still working towards getting Girl #1 first though...

 

I don't know if I ever mentioned our back story, but Ash's mom and I knew each other and dry humped/made out in middle school (knew each other since 6th grade, but started "liking" each other in 8th), then we dated summer between junior and senior year for a few months. It was an intense few months though, seeing each other almost every day, sex all the time, the best four months type of deal. Then again somewhere in my early 20's we crossed paths and fooled around until I found out she was dating someone, so I said nope, I'm outta here. In Jan 2012, New Years Eve/Day, we saw each other at a bar, really flirty, like just a good vibe all together, but she again had a boyfriend so we just went our separate ways. Anyway, two months later FB status changed to single, immediately texted her and started dating like 2 weeks later. Our first date we talked about our crazy past and how crazy our lives are and somehow baby names came up. I said I liked the name Ash after Evil Dead and she was like that's so awesome, I love it. Three years later our son was born (we never found out the sex), and he's named Ash! We knew all along if we had a boy, that would be his name. We never agreed on a girls name so everything just worked out.

 

For those of you with multiple kids. How is/was the consecutive pregnancy compared to the first?

 

My wife had hyperemesis both pregnancies. It's essentially severe morning sickness throughout the entire pregnancy which both times, resulted in a half-dozen or so trips to the ER to get fluids for her because she was so dehydrated. So needless to say, it was not a fun time for my wife (or me) either time she was pregnant. My second child was also breach, so my wife had to have a c-section, whereas our first was a natural birth.

That said, we handled her second pregnancy a lot better than the first, just because we kind of knew what to expect a little more.

 

That sounds awful, sorry y'all had to go through that!

First pregnancy was a breeze minus a little nausea. This pregnancy though she had like evening sickness and ACTUALLY puking a bit (although the common factor here seems to be pizza). Just crazy how different things have been.

 

Yeah, my wife pretty much puked daily/nightly for 7-8 months both times. It was honestly a nightmare.

 

I can't speak for her, but the second two pregnancies have been much easier on me because I know what to expect. We met, got married, and got pregnant all in the same calendar year, so I think my confidence was a little low the first pregnancy. It affected her mood and I thought it was my fault. Now I'm much better prepared to help her and me.

 

Having a toddler running around and being pregnant WIPES the energy out of a person, especially that first trimester. I found there to be a set of worries that I didn't have with my first (will the first feel neglected; how can I possibly love this one as much; how do I split my time between the two; etc), but those disappeared after birth. It really is true that no two pregnancies are the same, just like no two kids are. Keeping an open mind and knowing things weren't going to be the same and feel the same emotionally/physically (not worse, just different) really helped prepare me for what to expect. But also I'm still swept up in the blur of it all so who knows lol

 

Yeah we're in the 2nd try not and it's definitely better now, her hips are starting to hurt and such but that's about it right now. We feel the toddler running around sentiment, we have a 2 year old that sure is something haha.

Thanks for the response! How old are your kiddos?

 

No problem!
My older guy is almost 21 months and my little guy is 8 weeks. I haven't been on here in forever, so I don't remember, but how old is yours? Are you going to find out what you're having?

 

Dang, a really little one at home, congrats on that! Hope recovery for you had been well and you've been getting enough sleep haha!

My little man turned 2 in September and according to the blood testing we are having a girl (!) in April 2018.

 

Thanks! It's been a whirlwind and I still don't really know how it's already been almost two months with both because time flies with two around (except, of course, during the witching hour lol).

Congratulations! That's so exciting! I hope everything goes smoothly for you all :)

 

Appreciate that! The first trimester definitely was not great but as I said the 2nd is smooth so far other than the slight pains (at least I think they are slight, my wife have complained TOO much about them so far).

How has your older son taken to the new addition? Enjoy having them around?

My dude doesn't really seem to know quite yet (I'm sure that'll change over the next 6 months) but we've made it a point to try and tell him and will definitely start having him "help" with things when we start to actually get things situated with the nursery and such.

 

He has been really good so far. He didn't know what was happening when I was pregnant, but he knew the word baby and we read his books about having a new baby. He was excited once we were all home together. He of course gets little bouts of jealousy. And we did notice a change in his sleep briefly, but that went back to normal after he realized that the baby was sticking around.

But when the baby is upset, he tries to comfort him and he will go by the baby when he himself is having a meltdown and lay next to him. He likes to hold him and wants to go see Auggie as soon as he wakes up too. Really the only times where it's bad is when the baby is asleep and Shayley won't leave him alone or use his inside voice and when they are both having meltdowns at the same time lol.

 

Adorable! Also dear God! Toddler tantrums are wonderful! I do not look forward to this that's for sure.

 

Your heart will feel like it's going to explode from cuteness overload lol.

Whenever he has a tantrum, especially in public, I'm just like literally everyone with kids has been in my shoes, but the screaming/screeching still tests my patience.

 

On Saturday we had a Daddy Son day running errands while momma went shopping, he was pretty good until he decided that a parking lot was a good place to take off running.

 

Most of my paternity leave for our second child was me spending time with my son to keep him occupied and not feeling left out. I'd say that was the MAJOR difference once the second child was born. When your first is born, you still have time to just relax and kind of take everything in and life kind of resets while you focus all your time and energy on your child. But with the second child born, you still have another kid to take care of and chase around and be a parent too. So that was the major difference for us once our second was born.

In that aspect, it's kind of a lot more work because there's never any time to rest. My son doesn't nap anymore, the newborn naps a lot, so with the first, when they napped, life was awesome. Now when the second naps, there's still no time off.

 

I can attest to that. We just had our 2nd a couple weeks ago but pretty much the last month of my wife's pregnancy and these first few weeks with the newborn has been spent chasing our 2 year old since she physically couldn't keep up with her or lay with her due to errant elbows and feet. I forgot how much easier watching over a newborn is (assuming no health issues etc.) than a toddler. They're exhausting.