Everyone I know is having a second baby.
Okay, not everyone, but basically everyone. I would name names but that’s awkward so I’ll just tell you that three of my friends just welcomed their second babies and four of my friends are pregnant with their second babies.
C’mon now, that’s a lot of second babies.
Naturally, every time I turn around, someone is in my face asking, “SO, LIKE, WHEN ARE YOU GUYS TRYING FOR A SECOND?”
To be completely honest, the thought of having a second child right now makes me mentally break out in hives. And then I remember that it takes nine months to grow the baby and I feel a tiny bit better, but not really. Brett and I both want more children (him: yesterday, me: sometime in the semi-but-not-too-close future), but that desire makes me no less terrified.
There, I said it. I am straight up terrified of having two children.
Mathematically speaking, I’m one to one during the day. Right now I only have one mouth to feed, one butt to wipe, one tiny heart to love, one body to bathe, one knee scab to kiss, one Elmo to keep from getting lost (okay technically we have five Elmos but he does have a favorite), one carseat to buckle/unbuckle, one high chair to clean, you get the idea.
For some reason the leap from one baby to two babies seems bigger than the leap from no babies to one baby. And let me tell you: that was quite a leap for us.
Is it just me? Is anyone else terrified of having two children? I know people do it all the time but I don’t really understand the logistics behind it. When do you take a shower? How do you go to Target? How do you coordinate two nap schedules? What if one child doesn’t like Elmo? How do you potty train a toddler while breastfeeding a newborn around the clock? How do you get a double stroller in and out of the car by yourself? How do you survive and feel human and find time to breathe?
It took a while for us to get to this point, but Ev and I are in a pretty good groove right now. We’re Ashlee and Everett, partners in crime like Batman and Robin. We laugh, we play, we wrestle, we tickle, we go out for ice cream, we watch Elmo, we read. He sleeps for 2.5 hours in the afternoon while I edit photos and write and pretend there’s no laundry in the dryer.
Life is sweet and fun and (dare I say) manageable right now. What’s that saying? Don’t mess with a good thing? We’ve got a good thing going right now. I hope someday having two babies will be our good thing too, but for now, I am perfectly okay with having one mouth to feed and one butt to wipe and one Elmo to look after.