When my first son was born, there was always this niggling fear of whether or not a given phase would end.  Would he ever sleep through the night? Would he ever stop crying? Would I ever have a life again?  Of course the answers to all of the above are yes, but with a first child, you just never know.  Even when people, like myself, are telling you it will.

In some ways, the second child is so much more - dare I say it? - enjoyable.  You know the difficult phases will pass, and so you can sit back and enjoy the whole process just a little bit more.  That’s not to say you don’t live in constant wonderment with your first child - after all, everything they do is so new and amazing.  With my second son though I’ve found I can just relax a bit more than with Jaden.  They are both wonderful, fantastic children in their own right, but so much of the worry is not there this time around because I understand finally how transient the difficulties in raising small children really are.  With every night of broken sleep that passes, I know I am one less night of broken sleep away from normalcy.  Every messy diaper is that much closer to the last diaper I’ll ever have to change etc etc.  I know Lucas will roll over eventually so it’s okay if he’s a little late.  And that gives me so much more time to watch this little person growing in front of my eyes.