Today as I was checking out at Sams Club, and a realization came over me. Van was crying (mostly just complaining... he hates to grocery shop... too bad kidd) and Britta in tow. A cashier helper looked in on Van crying and had said he was expecting his 2nd baby in about two weeks. "Well congrats!" I said "that is exciting!" He then continues to say that he is hoping that he wont make the mistake of what everyone says about their second. In my mind I was thinking of all sorts of things like...
Shopping with a crying baby while everyone gives you bad looks because you are ignoring and semi laughing. Or how much the second one just has to deal with missing naps and being stuck in a car seat most of the time because "we got things to do!" But he surprises me and says that he has heard the second baby doesn't get near as much pictures taken of them as the first. "oh, yea" is all I can say because... I couldn't burst the bubble of this soon dad-to-be-of-two that, yep... good luck to ya... you will have bigger fish to fry than pictures. He goes on to explain he has a new camera and the camcorder all set up. Again, good luck. Maybe you will be much more put together than we are but sorry second kid... not near as many pictures as the first. There are just not enough hours/minuets of the day to squeeze in a photo sesh. Van was lucky that Winter is so awesome and MADE me do baby announcements! We are lucky to all be cleaned, dressed, and fed with minimal scarring and yelling for that matter and to make it at the end of the day without being sent to the looney bin.
It did make me reflect about what is different now with two. Yes, there are many LESS pictures of Van. But there is instagram and social media out there that wasn't there when Britta was born (wow 4 years really makes a difference). I have lots of phone pictures of him! Does that count? I don't know, but it will have to do.
Britta gets much less time with me and Gunnar. This is something that we are working on. There is more yelling, less patience, and a constant struggle for her to have Gunnar's attention. She always requests Gunnar to put her to bed. (trust me that is just fine with me!)
Grocery shopping will never be the same. With one, grocery shopping wasn't easy but it was doable. With 2 - grocery shopping goes like this - even with a list in had - I leave with only getting half of what I needed because of I was completely distracted by crying and constant nagging on getting a "surprise" or rushed because heaven forbid it is close to feeding time.
Eating, breakfast is always a maybe. Especially if we have somewhere to be in the morning, breakfast will not happen for me. Maybe for Britta (as long as a bag of cereal in the car counts) and Van, right now his eating comes first or else we all suffer. Lunch, if I go out or even eat at home he is usually crying because again, his lunch is close to mine and that means he wants his bottle now! Dinner, if I get it put together it usually starts with me yelling for it being time to eat and everyone get their crap together so we can eat as a family and it ends with me inhaling food just so I can be done to bath him and get him and Britta in bed.
So yea soon-to-be-dad-of-two, get that camera set up because there will be a lot of memories and moments to capture. I do hope you get those photos. We however don't have near the amount of photos of Van compared to Britta, and I have made my peace with that. His birth was so much different than Britta's (see previous post for details) and having a shared room post-pardum did not make for many photo ops. We didn't get one family photo or even a photo of just him on his blessing day because he had gone pooped himself and Britta had her dress off so fast after church it just couldn't have been stopped.
It doesn't mean we don't love and adore him. I much rather play with him and get him to giggle and put on the smolder then try and get the perfect photo of him. Most of our photos are on my phone because the moments I want to remember are the ones that are happening right now and in one second they will pass and we will be on to the next disaster/magical moment.
Things may be more complicated but it is nothing else I would rather be doing. We have come out of the newborn phase (thank goodness we survived!) and life is slowly getting more 'normal' and 'routine' for us. I'm sure as you add more kids the more complicated 'normal' gets. My mom always has said that their 3rd pushed her over the edge... That just happened to be ME so 'your welcome' mom!! (I also happen to be the favorite one so it all worked out!!) But for now this is all the chaos we can handle!
