A letter to my second baby

I've seen countless letters to second children, apologetic in nature. Apologizing for more stressed out parents, less time, less money, etc. As I am sitting here, enjoying the last two weeks of my maternity leave, I want to write a different kind of letter, hopefully one that will make up for the lack of letters that I wrote to you while you were a mere fetus, instead of my beautiful baby boy.

Dear Z,

First of all, welcome to the family! Your arrival was much anticipated and planned. We wanted to add you to our crazy family of three plus a furbaby. You are such a lucky little guy because you arrived to a family who was already in a bit of a groove. What does that mean, you might ask? Well, you have a mommy who bonded a lot better with you while you were in my tummy. You have a daddy who physically and mentally helped mommy through her pregnancy and you have a big brother who is SO excited about his new role.

I'll admit it - the nine months leading up to your arrival were a lot different than with your brother. We didn't have showers (we had it all!), we didn't take classes (we got this!) and we didn't spend hours wandering around the baby stores, wide eyed and overwhelmed. We enjoyed our time together, wondering what it would be like when you joined in on the fun. We talked to your brother about his new responsibility and laughed when we thought about Chino's reaction to ANOTHER two legger.

We planned for you and wondered what you would be like. Honestly, daddy and I thought that you were going to be a girl. You were a much different fetus than your big brother and my body did things a little bit different this time. I thought a lot about you and wondered how you would make your entrance into this world. We hoped for a healthy and easy delivery and a happy and healthy baby...and were so overwhelmed when both wishes came true.

I'm proud to say that I've grown up as a wife and mommy, so our time together was fun from the start. I'll admit, I'm not a baby person...but you made it easy on me, understanding that eating and sleeping were two skills to master, ASAP.

Instead of apologizing to you for what we can't or won't do differently from your brother, I want to welcome you to our family with open arms, a happy heart and a healthy mind. I love you so much and am super pumped to be your mommy.

Love,
Momma