[blparent] And now there are two!

[Kevin Athey]

Jen,
Congrats on your new little one. I love your children's names.
I found that the transition from 1 to 2 was a little more difficult
than from 2 to 3 so maybe that will comfort Melissa some. *smiles* My
kids are a little different in that all of them are within 14 months
of each other. I mean that the oldest was 11 months and then my second
oldest came along. Then those two were 25 months and 14 months when
the baby who is nearly two came along.
There are challenges don't get me wrong, but al in all it isn't hat
bad. I don't know if it is just with girls, but I've noticed that my
oldest is a mother hen. I bet yours will be too. You'll probably find
her saying that it is her baby and that she wants to feed and hold and
so forth. It is usually adorable. My best advice is:
1. Spend plenty of 1 on 1 time with the older one especially while the
baby is young.
2. Let the older one help with the baby. It is a good way for her to
feel involved, and a good way for you to get some peace.
3. Take time to yourself. You can't let yourself stress or get ran ragged.
4. At your oldest daughters age mine were no longer taking naps so we
had to establish quiet time. When baby naps especially if she takes a
longer afternoon nap then the other child might need some sort of
activity that she can do quietly. This might be time that you choose
to spend with her, or it might be time that you let her color or watch
a show or whatever so that you can either do housework which is what I
do or you can take your own personal time.
Traveling is the hardest thing that will change. I didn't often had to
take more than one child with me at a time if I could work it out to
where their dad was home or I could get a sitter. It is different for
everyone and you'll have to play with it and figure out what works for
you guys.
Good luck on your new adventure.

Kathy

On 5/2/12, Jennifer Bose <jen10514 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, fellow blind parents.
>
> I post pretty infrequently on this list, but I've learned a great deal
> from all of you. I'm Jennifer Bose and I live in Brookline,
> Massachusetts, with my husband Sunish Gupta, who worked several years
> ago on the project to build the early model of the KNFB Reader. Yes,
> I'm bragging on him a little. Naming our babies has been interesting
> since we've tried to find names that would represent their
> backgrounds; I'm American and he grew up in India. We have our
> 2-1/2-year-old daughter, Abigail Tulsi, and as of last Friday we have
> a newborn daughter, Tara Isabel. We're both very happy with two.
>
> I remember asking this list how blind parents manage two children and
> we got great responses. It's not that I don't believe it can be done;
> I know we're certainly not the first. My head knows that there are all
> sorts of solutions, but my emotions play tricks on me. Well, I'll put
> that down to normal parental anxiety and ask any of you who have
> multiple children to tell me everything I need to know. I'll take any
> tips you care to send along, especially about managing a toddler and a
> newborn. My husband and I are generally pretty independent and have
> done very well with one child, but with two, we're in a new zone. So
> please let me know what you've done or what you would suggest for us.
> I'm grateful for any and all help.
>
> Thanks so much. This is a tremendous resource.
>
> Jen
>
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