Looking back, it’s almost impossible to remember life before one child, let alone two. Yet, I can vividly remember thinking…”What did I do with my time before having Lena?” I mean, really. How did I ever think I was busy?
I think you get the same sensation in triplicate when you have a second child. I can’t even fathom what a third must be like. It took is quite some time to come to terms with having a second child. Lena was our baby, out first. Life was pretty full and she seemed so small. Even after a year, the thought of her being a big sister seemed alien. Regardless of the fact that she was constantly mistaken for a three year old, she just seemed too tiny!
And then, the fateful day arrived and Maggie was born. Suddenly, Lena seems enormous! How did we ever think she was a baby? Did she grow six inches overnight?? Impossibly, inexplicably your love grew to encompass both children in an even more profound way. Every moment becomes that much more precious because you now know just how fleeting it all is. Your new parent woes seem trivial and yet some come to light with even more intensity than ever before.
Life is full of triumphs and frustrations made all the more poignant by a new level of exhaustion. Yet, the sweetest rewards are all the more intense for having been hard won. A day, a week, a month goes by in a series of blinding flashbulbs that quickly fade into obscurity.
Keep your cameras at the ready because you haven’t a hope of remembering a thing about this wild ride otherwise.
