The learning curve for motherhood was a steep one for me. I had never changed a diaper, made a bottle, or even held a newborn before I had my own. Lets just say it was a lot of trial and error when I had my daughter. I read tons of baby books, pinned every single thing baby related on Pinterest, watched birth story videos on YouTube day and night, but nothing compared to the on the job training of motherhood.

Hubs and I learned so much the first time around which is why we vowed to do a few things differently with our son. If you’re a new or expecting mom, here are seven things that I did differently with baby #2.

1. I had a “sprinkle” instead of a “shower”. One of the good things about having your children close in age is that you’re still in baby mode so you already have most of the baby necessities. The only big thing that we needed for baby number two was a double stroller. All of our major baby items like the crib, baby gadgets; swings, etc. are gender neutral, so all we asked family and friends for were diapers, wipes, and gift cards. We didn’t ask for clothes, because once my husband found out we were having a boy he bought more clothes than we had room for.
2. Speaking of not having room, I didn’t stress about decorating the perfect nursery. I put a lot of time, energy, and money into my daughter’s nursery and can you believe she was 16 MONTHS OLD before she ever slept one night in there?!?! We don’t plan to have our son in our room nearly as long as our daughter was, but because we knew he would be in our room for the first few months we weren’t in a rush to have everything done perfectly.
3. I prepared for the 4^th trimester. The first three months of a newborn’s life are often referred to as the 4^th trimester because they have to get adjusted to life outside of the womb, a woman’s body goes through the healing process, and the family dynamic changes. I worried so much about how my daughter would handle the adjustment of being a big sister. I wondered how I would balance everything with two children, and I wanted to do everything in my power to prevent having another case of major baby blues, (more on that later) so I mentally prepared myself for the change that was about to happen.
4. I didn’t obsess. I didn’t read one single baby book. I didn’t over pack my hospital bag. I didn’t color code his baby clothes. I didn’t alphabetize his baby books. I didn’t check my baby app throughout the day to make sure that all of the foods that I ate were on the “approved list”. Basically, I chose a more laidback approach the second time around and everyone noticed. I was a ball of nerves during my first pregnancy, during labor, and that nervousness lingered around for months after we got home with my daughter. I promised myself that I would relax a little more with my son, and for the most part I did.
5. I let labor and delivery happen naturally instead of being induced. My doctor gave me the option to be induced at 39 weeks pregnant with my daughter, and I jumped at the chance to know the EXACT date and estimated time that she would make her grand entrance to the world. I knew I wanted our families to be at the hospital so I wanted everyone to clear their calendar for THE BIG DAY. My labor story with my daughter is pretty uneventful, because it was planned out to the “T”. Sorry to disappoint you, but there is no dramatic middle of the night “its time” story like you see on TV. My husband and I went to the hospital on the morning of my induction date and our daughter was here before dinnertime. With my son, he flipped back into the breech position two weeks before my due date, so I wasn’t even focused on induction because I thought I was actually going to have to have a C-section! I did everything possible to get him to flip back into the head down position, so I can’t tell you what technique worked. But, what I can tell you is that it IS possible for a breech baby to go back into to the head down position a week before you deliver! On the morning of October 25^th, 5 days away from my due date, I woke up with contractions (though, they were inconsistent and not really painful). But, by that evening the pain was so intense that I decided to soak in the bathtub because I knew the hot water would either stop false labor or speed up active labor. I had no idea what stage of labor I was in because my contractions were 10-15 minutes apart. I was only in the water for maybe 60 seconds before I screamed to my husband: TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!!! That bath sped my contractions up to 4 minutes apart and I could barely move! Hubs had to get both my daughter and I together, because we both were screaming! By the time we got to the hospital my labor was progressing so fast that I didn’t have enough time for an epidural to get into my system, so I was just given another kind of medication for the pain. I delivered my son before that medicine even kicked in so I felt EVERY SINGLE THING! Everything happened so fast that my doctor hadn’t even made it in the room by the time baby boy’s head had come out! Thank God for nurses!
6. I let baby sleep in the hospital nursery on the first night. I never thought I would, but I was so exhausted and my husband said his hands felt like they were broken from me squeezing them during every contraction, so we both needed rest. Plus, we knew from experience that it would be awhile before we had uninterrupted sleep again.
7. I did kegals before,during, and after my pregnancy because I learned the hard way how important kegals are the first time around.

Moms of multiple kids, what did you do differently with your second child?