On the way home from a long, meandering day downtown we decided to pop in at Hopworks for a pint & a sandwich. We were seated in the crazy kids section next to a family with a brand new, itty bitty baby boy. As I was admiring the wee bundle, I noticed that the father was holding a largish baby who was asleep on his shoulder. As moms tend to do, we started chatting (actually the dad noticed X's Jesus & Yoda action figures & we all had a good laugh). I asked her how old her babies were, and she told me the older had just turned 1 while the tiny baby was but 1 month old. It turns out she became pregnant when her first was only 2 months old! I asked her how she was feeling & how everything was working out, and she told me that despite the lack of sleep, she doesn't find it too difficult. She laughingly urged me to go for #2 ASAP.
It was funny, because M & I had just been discussing how we intend to time baby #2 --and yes, as of this writing, we do plan to add to our little family eventually, it is just a matter of when. M is an advocate for just going for it as soon as possible -get the baby thing over with & move on. I would like to wait a bit for a number of reasons, not least of which being my strong desire to nurse X until he is ready to wean on his own. I would hate to become pregnant & have to hasten him from the breast before he is ready. The mother I met at Hopworks indicated that was what happened to her -she had to supplement immediately because of a slow-down of production, and now her barely 1 year old was fully weaned (although she said she pumped a bottle for her eldest daily).
I think that I would like to remain fully available to X at least through his 2nd birthday, after which I would feel comfortable weaning him bit by bit as necessary. This means waiting until at least 2011 before starting this whole baby business again.
A part of me is glad for the reprieve. It is nice to have finally slimmed down & I would like to stay that way for some time. It would be wonderful to enjoy at least one decent night of sleep. I would like to resume some kind of daily exercise, either jogging or yoga. I definitely need at least one good drunk. And most of all, I am glad I am able to give X 100% of my time & attention for a while before adding the huge distraction that a little brother or sister would invariably be. There are so many excellent reasons to wait.
But another tiny part of me is almost eager to start again, to meet another little human face after the long, strange passage of pregnancy, to delight once more in those first smiles & laughs, to cradle a tender, fragile, sleeping innocent in my arms yet again. It all sounds just as amazing & wonderful as it did the first time. But in the mean time, I am enjoying getting to know a little dude named X. And that will be quite enough baby for a while.
4 comments:
I never know if a client has really liked their massage unless they reschedule. I guess you really like having a baby! I'm glad. :-)
8 years. It worked (is working for us) Whatever you decide it will work for your family. Your reasons sound valid and ring very true. Just know you are going to get a ton of questions until you do...procreate again. 8 years...yeah, that was fun to hear the same questions for many years.
Kudos to you for feeling ready to handle another already! I'm still not sure if I'm ready. I think I could if I got the exact same baby as #1, when but I hear of people struggling with colic or other difficulties, I'm not excited at all. Having my own life for a while has been great too. That said, it has really been a joy to be able to pay full attention to R. for the first two years. There is so much development taking place and I'm really grateful that I'm able to be there fully to experience it. I'll feel a lot better about taking some attention away when he's in preschool and has a bit of his own little life.
(Just stopping by on a whim) You know, it's funny the pull and push of a mother's feelings about adding the next member of the family. I enjoyed the article in the Nov/Dec issue of mothering magazine re: adding baby #2. Made me think that it's alright to wait a bit longer... oh, and J and I were talking last night about how we really want one long weekend away before I'm pregnant again!
Post a Comment