Third Baby vs. First Baby: A Face-Off

I’m almost eight weeks into life with three kids, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the transition. I think once you’ve established a baseline level of chaos with two kids, adding one more is just no big deal. Granted, the baby is the easiest baby in all of the land (knocking on SO MUCH WOOD right now), so it’s been like having an extra person whose only demands are lots of milk and a dry diaper.



I have definitely been struck by how different having the third child is from having the first, so I’ve laid out a few comparisons.

How a Third Baby Is Different Than the First

First baby: You can’t wait to get home from the hospital.

Third baby: You can’t wait to get home from the hospital, but the hospital felt kinda like a vacation.

First baby: You spend hours upon hours blissfully nursing the baby.

Third baby: You’re nursing on the go and adding talents like “breastfeeding while wiping someone’s butt.”

First baby: You’re having panic attacks in the NICU.

Third baby: You’re a total zen mama and nothing rattles you.

First baby: The baby cries, and you’re there in a split second.

Third baby: You’re like, “Crying never hurt anyone!” and you get there as soon as possible but don’t break into a sprint.

First baby: The weight practically falls off.

Third baby: The weight does not so much practically fall off.

First baby: People tell you “it gets so much harder” than life with a newborn and you want to punch them because it’s HARD.

Third baby: You think, “Newborns are SO EASY!” as you try to negotiate with your terrorist 2-year-old.

First baby: You think, “I just want to get to the next stage!”

Third baby: You want to hit pause because it’s all going way too fast.

First baby: It takes forever to get out of the house.

Third baby: You have getting three kids out of the house down to an art AND science.

First baby: You have a nursery totally set up at week 30 of pregnancy.

Third baby: The baby doesn’t have her own room and has clothes in several different dressers.

First baby: You have time to paint your nails.

Third baby: You got one hand painted, realized it was past your 4-year-old’s bedtime and never got back to finish painting your other hand.

First baby: You ambitiously want to cloth diaper.

Third baby: There is so much laundry already that you don’t think you could bear to add more loads to the mix.

First baby: You check that the baby is breathing.

Third baby: Nope, that never changes.

Did you find yourself much more relaxed with your younger kids? —Erin