What did you find harder, or perhaps ‘a bigger shock to the system’. Going from zero kids to one, or going from one to two, two to three.
Sorry for the word-salad. I’d have written a shorter post, but I don’t have the time.
One to two for me.
Obviously going from zero to one is… otherworldly, but to some extent you expect everything to be a bit crazy for a while.
Going from one to two was almost the opposite. We figured we had this front to back…nearly two years on and he’s still not slept through the night, and me and mummy are still struggling with the day to day adjustments we had to make for the second; new job with new working hours (Goodbye night shift, hello 50 HR a week jobs), and the fact that I’ve not slept in my own bed in well over a year at this point.
Two to three is the hardest. You can’t play man to man and have to go zone. But, three to four is a snap.
Knew a guy whose second kid ended up being twins. Barely seen him this decade.
It sounds like the adjustment is a bit rough for you at the moment if you feel like 2 sentences became too long. Don’t be so hard on yourself mate.
Becoming a dad is a shock to the system but one gets easier. I think more than one is relentless, there’s just no break ever. And they act like force multipliers, they drive each other mad and amp up the intensity where 2 is more like 2.6.
TL;DR
Our first was “I need to keep this alive and it’s stressing me out 24/7” but going from 1 to 2 was so much more chill.