From 1 kid to two- What's the Difference?

A few friends have had babies recently and it's been good medicine for me.  I've gotten to the '6 month magic mark' where Toby had me thinking that having babies is easy and gosh, they're just so darn cute, I should have another- right?  Having friends with newborns (you know who you are) reminds me that it's not all fun and games;  especially the first time around.  I had a super hard time adjusting to new mom-hood for various reasons including (but not limited to): staying at home isolated all day, didn't feel confident in what I was doing, felt easily insecure when asking for advice, it was physically hard on my body, I hated adjusting to no sleep, unexpected health issues postpartum, having a baby I couldn't figure out etc etc. 

Nonetheless, for all you moms of one (or dads) wondering what the difference is between 1 and 2 kids, here's the lowdown.  Now, most of this is humorous and just me reflecting on my parenting habits, but there's definitely some degree of truth in it.  So here goes:

with one child [1:]

with two children [2:]

[1:] "Honey, let's swap off for awhile. Could you just take him so I can have an hour to myself?"      

[2:] "Okay you get #1 and I'll get #2." [Both hands on deck].

[1:] "I can't believe he only slept for 2 hours, I barely got anything done!"        

[2:] "They're both asleep?  At the same time?  For 30 minutes? Praise God- it's a miracle! I'm gonna sit here and stare at the wall and do nothing."

[1:] "Oh, this shirt is a bit too small [0.5 cm too small], let's pull some new stuff out!  Yay!"   

[2:] "Arg, this doesn't fit anymore?! Oh well, I don't want to dig the boxes out yet.  It will do."

[1:] "I should weigh him again, it's been two days"             

[2:] "I should weigh him again, it's been 3 months"

[1:] "Let's see, he's 4 months old so I have a few months to research about introducing solids.  I'll make a bunch of pureed, homemade solids ahead of time, introduce them one at a time, wait three days to make sure he has no allergies, I'll be really careful...I can't wait to start, it will be so fun!"

[2:] "Crap!  He's 7 months and I haven't even thought about introducing solids!  What a pain!  Here's a bit of what we're eating.  Whatever, he'll be fine.  Better yet, here's a whole banana.  I can't believe I have to clean up this ridiculous mess 5 times a day, nursing is so much easier.  Think I could wait a month...?"

[1:] "I can't believe he's not even rolling yet!  He's so behind! Look at all the other kids, they're crawling already..." 

[2:]  "What?!  He's rolling?  Stop him! STOP HIM!  He's walking? That's so unfair!  At 9 months?!"

[1:] "It's so boring sitting here nursing all day."

[2:] "So nice to sit still and nurse.  I can just relax for a minute."

[1:] "Oops, you got a teeny, tiny drop of food on your shirt!  Better change you!"

[2:] "There's a spot he hasn't yet dirtied on his shirt.  Good to go until next week."

[1:] "I wish he had someone to play with, he always needs me!"  

[2:] "Why can't they just leave each other alone?!"

[1:] "He's never going to be a year.  This year is soooo long." 

[2:]  "He's almost a year?!  What happened? Where did my little newborn go?"

[1:] "I will never ____________ [insert anything here]" 

[2:] "I will do whatever, and I mean WHATEVER works"

[1:] "I don't want to start a bad habit..."

[2:] "We can break that habit later."

[1:] [Looking at people with more than one kid]: "How do they do it? It's impossible, I can't imagine ever doing this again."

[2:] You just do it.  Somehow.

[1:] "What did we do with all our time before having a kid?"

[2:]  "What did we do with all our time when we only had one kid?"

[1:] "At least if I have a second child I'll know what I'm doing."

[2:] "What did we do last time?  I can't remember anything..."

[1:] "I hate the baby stage. I'm pretty sure I'll like all the other ones better.  I'm just not a baby person."

[2:] "I love the baby stage.  They are soooo easy.  Toddlers are haaaard." 

How have your parenting thoughts changed from 1 to multiple kids?  [Those with twins, well, you are in a whole other league].  This post is not to make those with 1 feel like what you're enduring is not hard.  Cause it is.  Really really really hard.  Somehow with the second it's not that it gets easier but you get wiser, certain things fall to the wayside, you know that this truly truly will be only a season, and you just get through it (again).