It’s been a month of adjustment. Adjusting to scattered sleep schedules. Adjusting to not out-numbering our kids two to one. Adjusting to being a family of four (which still sounds a little weird to me.)
Despite the fact that June looks so much like Ellen did at this age, there’s no confusing the two in other respects. When Ellen was a month old, she was getting Lisbeth up once a night for an hour at most. With June, Lisbeth is generally up four or five hours a night.
But in some ways a newborn is a newborn — they are demanding, but not terribly rewarding. With your first child that’s okay because it’s all new and interesting, but with the second child… well, I find myself impatient for her to be a little older.
When you have a second child, you suddenly become aware of how incredibly lively, engaged, and interactive your first child is. Having June has done nothing to diminish our love for Ellen — perhaps even the opposite.
After all, June is in many ways still a mystery to us. We don’t really know just who June is yet. But we know who Ellen is. Ellen is an utterly fantastic little girl. And she’s adjusting too. She’s adjusting to not having our undivided attention anymore. She’s adjusting to having her parents expect more from her. She’s adjusting to the fact that it’ll be a while before she has a playmate in her new sister.
I can totally see how, from Ellen’s perspective, June is either being an attention sponge, or just boring. And yet, when Lisbeth picks Ellen up at day-care with June in tow, Ellen swells with pride, and tells everyone around that this is June, and she’s our new baby.
Recent Comments