My favorite first few days memory: For whatever reason, my son had referred to his “part” as a “neck.” We have our theories as to why he called it a “neck.” Anyhow, I was changing my daughter’s diaper, and my son looked bewildered when he saw his sister had different parts there. “Mommy, where’s her neck?” he asked me. I had a good laugh while explaining that little girls don’t have “necks.”

When we were expecting #2, I was terrified of everything: what if I didn’t love my second as much as I loved my first? What if I ruined Zachary’s life by bringing another baby home? What if this fragile existence we had created, daddy and mommy and baby, just fell apart with the pressure of a new baby?

And it was an adjustment, probably more than adjusting to being a parent at all. Learning to balance time and attention and resources with two kids. But Zachary isn’t scarred, though there may be days when he’ll tell you otherwise. We now have three, and though it’s been a change each time, it’s never been as bad as I feared. Maybe that’s because I tend to completely overblow my fears, but I like to think it’s because kids handle becoming siblings better than we think they will.