When I was pregnant, I had a couple of friends tell me, “The third baby is the BEST baby!” I was so excited to learn what they meant!

After Mae came along, I found myself thinking, “This is the ‘best?’” This is motherfreakin’ HARD!  Now, of course, we all know that Mae’s start was very hard due to her heart surgery, but even after the worst was behind us and I could “just” be a normal mom to three somewhat normal kids, I struggled.

Probably the hardest part has been dividing myself up into another chunk so that I can have a relationship with yet another family member. I find that I’m simply not able to meet all their needs (husband, three girls, dog…) consistently. But that’s fodder for another blog.

What I want to write about is that it now does, truly, feel beautiful and I know what my friends meant. I think I had to get past the newborn slog and turn the 6-month corner.  And now, yes, this is the BEST baby!  Not that Mae is, per se, a better baby (geez, she’s already taken me to hell and back). But the third baby is the BEST!  Because I’m more confident. I don’t worry about the stupid little things that used to panic me. Examples…

I don’t pack for every possibility when I leave the house with Mae. We have a diaper and a bottle and we’re set. No extra clothes (I love naked babies so if she makes a monster mess, she goes naked); no extra toys (there’s always something laying around that she can play with – aka, a spatula)… I laugh at all the crap I used to haul around with Delaney.

If she sleeps longer than normal, I don’t wake up in a panic. I revel in it.  No, I don’t go check on her.

I play more!  I know that the laundry will be there tomorrow and next year, even. Mae is just learning to giggle an awesome, gut-busting giggle. Who wants to miss that?

I don’t think she’s going to poison herself if i turn my back.

I don’t know how many baths I gave her last week (I was a nut about Delaney’s “bath time”) and we don’t have a “bedtime routine” yet. No schedule at all, really. We just go with the flow.

And finally (drumroll, please) I still haven’t cracked a parenting book. Yes, I have forgotten EVERYTHING about Delaney and Allie’s baby-hood, but I also know there are a million ways to do it “right” and really only a couple of ways to do it “wrong” so the odds are in my favor.

So, yes, Mae was a surprise and I spent a lot of time fretting about how hard life would be — for good reasons. But I had no idea how much FUN it would be.

I’m so glad I got the chance to find out!

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