From New Parent:

“Wow!” “Congrats!” “We are so happy for you!” These are statements my husband and I heard over and over again when we told people we were pregnant with our daughter. Later, when announcing our pregnancy with our son, the reaction couldn’t have been more different. Most people thought we were joking. Some said, “Really?” and “No way.” Others even said, “You know how that happens right?” and “Was it an accident?”

Our friends and relatives responded so differently because our daughter was our first, and the pregnancy with our son was confirmed when she was only 6 months old. Friends and relatives were even more shocked to find out we planned it that way.

We wanted to have children close in age for a number of reasons. We thought it would be wonderful to have siblings that grew up enjoying the same things and sharing a bond. We felt the years spent changing diapers and staying home would be far fewer, than if the children were spaced further apart. Also, we waited until almost our 30’s to have kids. We’d been responsible and held off as everyone had instructed us to do, but then I started reading more and more about the difficulties of getting pregnant after 30. I was getting nervous and felt we were racing the clock. So, my husband and I were thrilled when the second pregnancy test read positive right around our daughter’s 6-month birthday.

Then it all set-in. There were many things I hadn’t counted on struggling with two pregnancies close together.

• The difficulty of carrying around one baby while pregnant with another.

• Changing diapers while dealing with morning sickness.

• Not getting near enough sleep during the second pregnancy because I was up at night with my oldest.

• I battled pre-term contractions daily for two months simply because my body wasn’t ready to have one baby right after the next.

• I was so exhausted from being pregnant and so busy with my daughter that I didn’t get the chance to enjoy the second pregnancy as much as the first. I had to remind myself to stop and feel my son’s movements and kicks.

I made it through that pregnancy, and my son was born at 38 weeks making our children barely 14 months apart. Now that he had arrived, we thought we did it! We have our girl and our boy, they’re close in age, they’ll be good friends, and we won’t be tied up with baby things for too long. Little did we know how extremely difficult that first couple of years is with 2 children under the age of 2...

Read the rest at New Parent.