Logically I know that baby girl #2 is her own unique person. I’m beyond excited to get to know her and her individual quirks, likes, dislikes and personality. However, being that I only have experience with Hailey, it’s hard to imagine a baby with a different set of needs or preferences so a lot of our plan for baby raising is based off of what worked for Hailey. We will certainly adjust as needed, but for now, here are some things I plan to do differently and the same when baby girl arrives…
What I plan to do the same:
Baby girl will sleep in our room. At least in the beginning. We have a Moses basket and stand that will stay beside our bed to help make nighttime feedings more convenient and so I can intently watch every breath she takes because I’m a nervous nelly like that. We moved Hailey to the nursery at 3 months and I bawled my eyes out, only to fine we all slept better than ever. So depending on how things go, baby girl might make that transition sooner.
We will swaddle. I’m not sure if you are aware, but David is the swaddle master. Even the nurses at the hospital commented on his mad skills last time. I contribute a lot of Hailey’s good sleep habits starting early on to the swaddle and will keep my fingers crossed that it works for us again.
I will exclusively breastfeed. Hopefully the beginning isn’t as painful as it was with Hailey now that I have more experience, but overall nursing worked out so well for us until we weaned at 14 months. I really hope and look forward to having a similar experience with baby girl.
We will use disposable diapers. We are stocked up on 7th Generation diapers and will most likely stay that route. It’s what works best for our family.
Baby led weaning. Introducing Hailey to solids using the BLW method was one of the highlights of her first year for me. It’s really worked out so well for us and I credit the method at least partially to Hailey’s good eating habits. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that baby girl will take to it and be a great eater, too, but if not, I’ll have a whole new perspective from which to write Munchkin Meals from!
What I plan to do differently:
Introduce a bottle more consistently. Once we got the hang of nursing, it was so easy that I never wanted to pump and use a bottle. (To those that pump consistently and often- you are my heroes!) I did a few times to let David feed her, but because I lacked consistency, Hailey never took to bottles all that well. It limited the time I was able to be away from her until she was eating more solids, which was OK, but I think I’d like to have the bottle be an option this time and snag an occasional night out with my handsome husband.
More baby wearing. I had the k’tan when Hailey was born and it worked really well when she was tiny, but I felt she outgrew it by 2 months or so. Then we had the Bjorn, which never worked well for me. We used it occasionally, but it hurt my back and just felt awkward, so I relied more on the stroller. We ended up buying an Ergo when Hailey was close to a year old and fell in LOVE. Seriously, I love that thing and I wore Hailey through her turning 2 years old. I now have the infant insert and can not wait to wear baby girl, especially since I’ll be doing my best to keep up with her big sister.
Not stressing about milestones. I actually never worried too much about this the first time around, but when you are surrounded by other babies, conversations arise about when junior did XYZ. We have friends that walked at 7 months and others not until 17 months. Some were chatty starting at 9 months and others barely said a word until age 2. At the old age of 2.5, I realize that they are all close to being on the same page. As cliché as it sounds, I believe all kiddos do develop at their own rate and worrying won’t get you anything but a few more face wrinkles.
Take more real videos. I took a lot of little video clips on my iphone when Hailey was a baby, but when David transferred those to DVD, I found that 10 seconds of this and 20 seconds of that was not very easy to watch. I plan to keep our real video camera out more to capture more of life’s moments. I want to remember baby girl’s sounds, grunts and silly faces forever.
You can find more of my thoughts from my first and second pregnancies here.
Moms, what are some things you’d like to do the same or differently if you had the choice?
If you have more than one child, were they similar as babies or very different?
Laura @ Mommy Run Fast says
I’ve been thinking about this, too. Like you, we had L in our room until 3 months and then found we both slept better with a little distance! We’ll see how this one goes. I know I’m not going to jump to feed the new one at every little peep like I did with L- she was not a great sleeper and I don’t think I helped matters. And yes to babywearing! The Ergo is amazing. I also used the Moby wrap for a lot for the earlier stages and my husband would wear it around the house, too. Made it easier to make breakfast, do laundry, whatever. Can’t wait to hear how baby #2 is similar or different to your first!
Katie @ Pick Any Two says
I only have one right now, but if/when I have a second I definitely want to do more baby wearing, since – like you say – it’s kind of essential when you’re also chasing after a toddler!
Karen says
If (when) I have another one, I’d probably focus more on Baby Led Feeding as Keely is such a picky eater so I’d hope the second loved a lot of different foods. I’d also not compare as well. Keely was sleeping through the night at 4 weeks (I’d get up and pump) so I know the second may not do that so I’d try and not compare the two children. I am def getting the itch again but we really want to wait till Keely is potty trained and 3 years old.
Lindsay@Fuel My Family says
I moved my second and third int their cribs (with a breathing monitor fr my sanity) at 6 weeks and they are such better sleepers than my first. Everyone sleeps so much better! I looove my ergo but it can be hard to clip the one behind your back by yourself sometimes. I taught my almost 3 year old how to clip it and it was a lifesaver! Unfortunately breastfeeding was just as painful round two but round three was muuuuch better! Good luck!
Katie says
I definitely agree with taking more videos! I think I have maybe two videos before my daughter turned 2 months old and while photos are great, I wish I had more videos of when she was brand new. I also plan to transition to a crib sooner with #2….like you, we all slept a lot better 🙂
Jaclyn @ BumpSweat says
Posts like these are insanely helpful for this mama-to-be! I’m really looking forward to wearing baby around in the Ergo; I hope she takes to it well. A couple questions about feeding: when do you plan/recommend introducing baby to the bottle, and which bottles do you use? I’m in the middle of registering, and it can be so overwhelming!
char eats greens says
I think I would baby wear more too!! I would also start cloth diapering from the beginning (we didn’t really do it until 6 months), but I would want to see what it’s like a little earlier! I would also work on better night sleep habits. Nia’s killing me lately.
I love this list and seriously cannot wait until ‘baby girl’ is ______ (feel free to insert name here at anytime 😉 haha)
Katie Harding says
I love this post! We are having our third this summer and I’m already thinking of things that I want to do differently and especially agree with more videos and pictures. My second doesn’t have nearly as many pictures as my first so with my third my goal is to be much better about taking both videos and pictures and actually printing them!!
Kelli H (Made in Sonoma) says
I think the video camera idea is a good one. David always gets on me because whenever I take videos on my camera they are the same 10-20 second clips. We’ll definitely want longer videos of our babies. Heck, one of my favorite things as a kid was watching videos of myself — haha.
lauren says
If we have a next time, I will try…try to stress less. We had the worst breastfeeding experience ever. Ending up bf for 3 mos and supplementing (or else he lost weight, even when I bf 14x a day) and pumping for one more month. It was all I thought about for 4 months of his life and I had pretty bad ppd/ppa that I kind of ignored ’til he was 6 mos 🙁 I blame some of this on my emergency csection after a long, long labor, followed by THREE vacuum attempts. I’d hope that with a scheduled csection next time, it might go better? I’d also pump right from the start after every feeding since I now have a history of extremely low supply.
I’d use the k’tan from the start (BTW, I can still get my 9month, 21+ pounder in my k’tan and I’m still up about 10lbs so I didn’t buy it big, it is a really stretchy carrier!) I LOVE the ergo, but the infant insert wasn’t his favorite.
We kept LO in the bassinet in our room ’til he was about 4 months and really only moved him because I realized that 16.5lbs was half a pound over the weight limit. Oops. I think I’d keep a new baby in there as long as possible again. I liked having him close 🙂
Can’t wait to hear about your journey with baby #2!
Paulina says
Lauren, I had an unplanned c-section with my first followed by months of ppd too. Anyway, for my second birth, I had a VBAC and it was an amazing experience and so far, 3 months postpardum, no depression at all 🙂 Something for you to consider if you’re hoping to have more babies. I think a scheduled c-s would be better mentally too, just knowing ahead of time to be prepared for any outcome seems like a good idea.
Jerrica says
I have two that are 22 months apart. I did everything the same. I swaddled both, wore both in a carrier, fed them the same, ect. They could not have been more different from the very beginning. My first was the easiest baby I have ever encountered. I was so excited for round two! My second had colic. It didn’t cause me to have to alter my routine much so I just proceeded the only way I knew how. We made it through. Their personalities have always been different. First is incredibly laid back and second is a sensitive mess with a serious attitude. But they both love momma’s snuggles, raw veggies and their blankies….so there is something to be said for doing what works for you! Despite how different they are, they truly are best friends. They play together all day, hold hands randomly and sincerely worry about the other when something is wrong. You can’t look back and wish you did something differently if you did the best that you could at that time. Just sit back and get ready to watch this exciting and magical journey that is about to begin!
Jodi says
Love this advice! Jerrica, you are a wise lady!
Becky@TheSavedRunner says
I love that you have thought about what you want to do the same and what you want to do differently. I know I don’t have any of my own kids, but I would assume being organized and having a plan makes everything so much easier!
Heather says
I’m starting to find that my experience with Baby #2 is a lot different than Baby #1. Both of our kiddos are alike in many ways, but also very different. They both entered the world very differently and I think set the tone. While my son started sleeping through the night at a very young age, our daughter still wakes up for at least one middle of the night feeding, despite us trying to change her schedule. Whereas our son ate larger bottles fewer times a day, our daughter prefers smaller amounts more frequently throughout the day. Our son has always been a bit of a spitfire (though generally good natured), and our daughter has always been quite calm and patient. My son hated being worn, but my daughter is enjoying it for the most part.
I love the differences between the two of them, though, and I love that this time around I’m just not nearly as nervous or anxious as I was the first time. I tend to just let things go and know that babies will be babies and each one is different. While, like you, we’re doing a lot of things the same as we did with our son, we’re also doing some things differently because they just work better for us now. Go with the flow, right?
Paulina says
So much about this second baby is different from her older sister. I stress much less about everything, and we’re all sleeping better. We introduced bottles earlier (around 1 month old) and I made sure to pump about every other day so she adjusted to bottle feeding while at daycare with no problems so far. I’m not depressed this time which has been the biggest (and best) difference, but I don’t think that’s something we can control. Babywearing is a must for watching a toddler and new born. I still love the K’tan at 3 months and 12 or 13 lbs!
Ali says
I like this post. I always think about these things too. I want to buy more baby carriers. I had the moby and ergo carrier for Aiden and he went through times with each that he didn’t like them. I would like to get a k’tan I think and use my sling more. I also would attempt to pump more, but I absolutely loathe it. It is nice to be able to get out of the house more however.
Ashley @ My Food N Fitness Diaries says
Loved reading this! I’m very interested to see how similar/different our future child(ren) will be compared to Hunter!
Jodi says
Well you have seen Avery and Emmy…. Such different kiddos! I think intrinsically my kiddos are just different and unique but I definitely parented differently the second time around. I was way more laid back and less doting on Emmy which sounds terrible, but I was the mom that would jump if A made a squeak… With E, I just didn’t have that luxury. I wore her soooooooooo much btween the moby and ergo. I loved that and totally miss that… Avery was glued to my chest as I layed on the couch for what felt like an eternity…( in a good way 🙂 I only wish I had quit my job sooner so I could have enjoyed my time more with Emmy early on!
Laura @FitMamaLove says
I love that you’re being realistic and saying what you PLAN to do because you know things could change.
The baby carrier is even more of a godsend with baby #2!
Lauren @ Fun, Fit and Fabulous! says
I’m expecting my first in two months so this is such a great read and I will definitely keep a lot of this in mind going forward. Thanks!
Amy says
Wearing the baby will be your best decision. With a 2 yr old and 5 mth old, I have to wear the 5 mth old if I want to get anything done. I’ve been using a ring sling which has made trips to the grocery store and running errands with both kids so much easier.
Toni says
Having just had our 2nd child, I can say that this time around, I’ve been much more relaxed with everything.. perhaps a little too relaxed at times..
Toni says
Remember the PROPER WAY TO DE-LATCH BABY’s MOUTH!!! And for you bottle-users, remember to change out the nipples to the new sizes every couple of months. Time constraints WILL force you to be more intentional about taking photos & videos, but aim to do some at least once a month, ( put it on your calendar so u don’t forget.)
Brittany Dixon says
Oh my gosh Toni, I completely forgot about how to detach them from nursing- GREAT reminder! I’m sure I would have just tugged her off (OW!!)