I've found the hardest thing to adjust to with h is my loss of personal space. Babies like to be right beside you. This one likes to sleep with people. He is breastfed so he gets right up close and personal every couple of hours. I don't have any more than perhaps two or three hours to myself without him getting in my space. It is claustrophobic. He is demanding, and babies don't really know we are out here. They have no Ccept of anyone else's wants and needs, only their own. At first they don't understand when we are out of their sight that we still exist, they have no Ccept of the permanence of objects or people. So if they feel hungry, cold, dirty or scared and can't see anyone, as far as they are Ccerned they are alone in the universe. And so they howl their despair, and as Mummy, it is not something that can be walked away from easily.
When Ctemplating another baby this is what you are giving up: Your space and time. For several years, anything that is solely for yourself has to be fitted in round other people who are best described as selfish and needy. (but you love them!). Cn is out of nappies, and is getting to the stage of going to other people's houses to play. Next year he goes to school. He is still a child, but is well on the way towards independence. Having h means I am back at the beginning. And once you have been a mother, you KNOW what you are getting into.
There wouldn't be any seCd children if it wasn't for the hormones that make the love you have for your baby the most wonderful thing in all your life. They are so wonderful to cuddle. And when they smile at you they put their whole being into it - you feel loved right back.
Kids are great, but they cost a hell of a lot more than money.
Posted by Toni at July 12, 2004 12:44 PM