This fall my second child was born. It's been an adjustment for us, but not nearly as big as the adjustment of having the first child. The one thing that has really struck me is how much additional energy it takes to care for an infant and toddler.
Up until child #2 one parent was always free to do something, but with two young children it gets tricky. After watching both of them by myself for an evening, I was completely wiped out. Then waking up a few times in the middle of the night, and working all day, it's left me with very little time and energy to do much else. Despite the exhaustion there are always plenty of joys of parenthood, but there are times that I would seriously contemplate being able to hit the fast forward button on a few months. It always seems like things will be getting easier when the kids hit the next stage, but the truth is that while the nature of the challenges change, kids always take a lot of work.
I can see why it seems like all the parents I know are stopping at two kids. I seriously wonder how these large families that were so common a few generations ago did it. I imagine it got easier once the oldest were able to help with the little ones, but I couldn't imagine having 5 kids under the age of 10.
For us I think these two are proving pretty manageable, but it is certainly leaving me with less time and energy for personal pursuits such as blogging.
