Second Kid Syndrome

Before I had kids, I swore that I would not become “that” parent that favored a kid. My parents were always fair to all three of us, so at least the example had been set. I’m not more than halfway through my second pregnancy and I don’t think I’m necessarily “favoring” one over the other, but there are definitely milestones and attention that are going to the wayside with number two.

Ladies, let’s talk second kid syndrome.

Spilling the beans: With our first pregnancy, we were so cautious to hide it and not tell anyone until 12 weeks. I’m pretty sure that after we crossed the 5 week mark with our second pregnancy, U.S. Weekly knew about it. Of course, the fact that I started showing really early with the second didn’t help matters.

Photographs: We took “belly shots” every four weeks to document the growth of my expanding belly with our first pregnancy. In the 22 weeks of my current pregnancy, we’ve snapped one photo. One, lonely photograph. So sad.

Prepping the room: I’m pretty sure that as soon as we knew the gender of baby number one, we pretty much had her room set and ready. Our soon-to-be-son’s room on the other hand? Still stacked with remnants of my husband’s “man room”. We still have to carpet the room, paint, buy furniture, etc.

Updates on pregnancy: With my first born, we kept up the cutest blog since we had lots of family far away. It was a great way to do weekly updates on the progress of the pregnancy. This kid hasn’t gotten one post. Not even an “I’m here stewing” post. I’m pretty sure the last post I did was when my daughter turned nine months (she’s now 19 months). Oops. I do send out an occasional email to family updating everyone how we’re doing though. Just not nearly as often.

Attention: I remember talking to and loving on my belly so much more the first go ’round. This time I think there have been days where I don’t even give a “what’s up” to my second bun in the oven. Poor guy, I’m sure he feels neglected.

Starting now I’m going to make a conscious effort to do better and not be an enabler of second kid syndrome. I mean come on, the poor kid hasn’t even really seen the light of day yet.

Smarty Moms – are you guilty of second (or third, fourth, fifth) kid syndrome? What have you done?

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