One of the most common questions people asked when I was pregnant with Sutton was “is this time easier or no?” Honestly, it was difficult to answer only because in some instances it was and in some it was not. I think in general, I have learned a lot since becoming a mom of two.
For the most part, the actual pregnancies were very similar in my opinion. My body felt great, my biggest side effect was being tired and both came a week and a half early as larger babies. Where things were different was work. When I was pregnant with Miles, we were in quarantine. I was working from home, walking multiple miles a day, resting when I could. Honestly, it was great. With Sutton, things were busy. I have assumed a new role at work that is much busier and way more fast paced. Getting dressed a lone was a lot different. I was tired and worn down from the day-to-day job that definitely made me feel even more tired when pregnant.
Where things started to feel different was during delivery. Similar to Miles, my water broke a week and half before my induction date and we were able to get to the hospital on our own time. I was never in a lot of pain, and thankfully was very chill when getting checked in. With Sutton, my water broke right as we were putting Miles to bed so I called a friend and my grandma to make their way to the house while I finished getting packed up. Unlike when I was pregnant with Miles, I had NOTHING ready for the hospital so I had to throw our bags together while Jon Luke put him to bed. We ended up getting checked in to the hospital and in our room by about 9pm and just slowly rode things out from there.
After laboring and sleeping most of the night (still not feeling pain thankfully) I went ahead and got my epidural around 5am out of precaution. It was similar with Miles – I never really felt like I needed it but I was scared that it would be too late. After that, I did a little work and took a nap until my doctor was ready. Now, if you read my birth story with Miles, I pushed with him for over two hours because he was stuck. With Sutton…not so much. She was quick and easy and was born by about 10:30am…with only two pushes. Thank goodness!
All that to say, the easier delivery made for a MUCH easier recovery and I felt like myself again almost immediately after coming home from the hospital. Again, that was not the case at all with Miles and I had to give myself a ton of grace. But thankfully, my girl was much easier on my body physically and we got into a groove more quickly than Miles and I did.
Now, fast forward to where we are now (almost four months old) and I can confidently say that she is SO different than Miles. Super sweet like he was, eats well like he did, pretty chill like he was but the schedule? Throw it out the dang window. With Miles I could count on full naps and a full nights sleep by the time he was three months old. To be honest, he has slept through the night since then (knock on wood) so I have never known otherwise. Sutton…not so much. My girl is all over the place with her sleep patterns and it is extremely difficult to navigate. For someone who is a huge planner and loves a schedule, she is definitely teaching me to relinquish control and learn to go with the flow.
That has been one of the biggest things I have learned after becoming a mom of two. No two kids are exactly alike…and that is okay. It does not mean anything is wrong with her and it does not mean I am a bad mom, but it is clear that there will be things that are different than her brother so I have to learn how to navigate that. Again, the world itself is a different place this time around. Things are busy again. I also have a three year old. There will be days that are harder than others but there are also sweet moments ahead. To sum it all up, I have decided that being a mom of two is about learning, having patience and giving myself grace. They might be different, but they both need me in their own unique ways and I am so incredibly thankful that they call me mom.
