Number 1: I cannot get anything done! She wants me to carry her around all day, every day.
Around the house, she wants to be carried, at the grocery store, she wants out of the cart to be carried, at the mall, she wriggles in her stroller so I can carry her.
My arms are building up some muscle carting around my 22 pounder!

When I am not around, my husband says she is so good. She will play independently or with her sister and most importantly, she doesn’t whine to be picked up. I guess I am just a sucker and she knows she can get her way with me.

Number 2: Since I am always picking Pinkie Pie up and carrying her everywhere, it’s less time that I get to spend with PP. PP even says, “Mommy, she wants you to pick her up, so pick her up so she stops crying.” Followed by, “You always pick her up.”
Now, if PP trys to hug me, Pinkie Pie goes nuts! She holds her arms up with huge tears streaming down her face while her cheeks turn beet red with sadness.
So, I try to pick them both up (remember my reference to huge biceps??) then Pinkie Pie starts to hit PP so she can get even closer to me (basically, turns into Wrestlemania).

Either way, I feel like I upset one of my daughters and more likely than not, I give in to Pinkie Pie since she is younger (and louder!)

Help!!!  Does anyone have any advice for me?

I happen to live in one of those states and cities that were covered with snow on Christmas morning, and as a resident of Atlanta, to say I was surprised was an understatement — I was ecstatic! There has not been a white Christmas here since the 1800’s. Atlanta was not alone as the storm moved up the coast throughout the day and the ones following.

Did you get an unusually large amount of snow on Christmas? Tell us about it!

1. When & why did you start blogging?
I started blogging in June 2007 with my cousin Emily Berry, because we both became mothers at the same time and were cracking ourselves up with our pregnancy/postpartum complaints. We thought of writing a book, but by then our babies were toddlers and we just couldn’t find the time! So Emily suggested we start a blog, and we did, even though we had no idea what we were doing. It has been three years of fun, connecting with readers, and amazing opportunities.

2. As a mother, what has blogging meant for you?
Blogging has made me a better mom, because it’s allowed me to be real about my struggles as a parent. I have an outlet to vent, to seek encouragement and advice, and to help others through their struggles. In putting myself out there, I’ve gotten a lot back.

3. What do you think will be your biggest challenge facing the birth of your third child?
I think the biggest challenge will be surviving the sleepless nights and constant neediness of a newborn while tending to my other two. My youngest will be four when the baby is born, and she is VERY much mama’s girl – I think her “sharing” me with the baby poses an equally great challenge!

4. What’s your favorite part of the day with your child?
With my six-year-old son, my favorite part of the day is early morning. He is allowed to get in bed with us after 6am (7am in the summer!) and he is very snuggly and sweet. Those are really precious moments for me when he just loves on me. With my three-year-old daughter, it’s right before nap time in her bed, when we snuggle. She puts her arms around my neck and holds on tight. I have been blessed with two very snuggly kiddos! I hope this new baby loves to cuddle, too.

5. What is your favorite Graco product?
My favorite Graco product is the Infant SnugRide® car seat & base. It made getting my babies in and out of the car safely and quickly SO easy. A close second would be our Graco imonitor™ baby monitor. It’s over five years old and still going strong. I sleep with a lot of white noise, so I still keep a monitor on my three-year-old because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to hear her if she needed me. We have the imonitor™ with two receivers, one for each floor of the house, and it is fantastic!

Do you have a favorite blogger you want to see here on the Graco Blog? Let us know, and they might be featured in next month’s Monthly Blogger Spotlight!

Photo courtesy of Locke Innovations.

1.  Good food
2. Laughing hysterically at my older brothers
3. Our designated seating arrangements. 

Of course, in it’s entirety, it was a great time to for me and my brothers to talk about our lives and the (hottest) school gossip with our parents, ultimately leading to some serious family bonding and communication.  In fact, I believe my parents’ insistence on “family dinners” is a big reason for how my family openly communicates and how close we are today.

1.  Good food:  I’m a born and bred Georgia Peach (Go Dawgs!) and my mom, her mom and my dad’s mom are all practically “Paula Deens” in the kitchen.  The food is what got the family to the table in the first place. 

My mom knew how to please each of her kids and we all looked forward to our dinners.  I remember when we would play outside and my mom would ring a bell from our porch signaling it was time to eat. 

By then, we were worn out and hungry and the aromas couldn’t keep any of us away.  Thanks, Mom, for feeding me such YUMMY food.  I think the boys would say the same!

2.  Laughing Hysterically:  I almost always mention in my posts that I am one of three children, but, the only girl.  My brothers are hysterical and it is not difficult to make me laugh out loud.  Once the food would get the family to the table, the laughing would eventually ensue. 

Honestly, my brothers would have me laughing so hard it got to the point of my mom annoyed with the (laughing) tears streaming down my face and my giggle interrupting her lovely dinner. 

Sometimes she would finally ask me to sit in the other room by myself, and I would continue laughing.  In the other room. By myself. 

I’m sure it was obnoxious, but it is one of my family’s favorite memories to this day.  AND… It didn’t dilute the bonding because my brothers would pretend to be excused from the table, but come entertain me while I ate by myself.  My mom recently admitted that she thought it was hysterical, but she was trying to teach me important dinner table manners.

3.  Designated Seating:  We all had our seats.  The tricky thing was figuring out where guests would sit when we would have friends join our family dinners.  It always felt strange when a brother had a late baseball practice or dad was out of town for work and a seat was empty. But those of us who were not busy in other things, still went to the table for dinner. 

As the youngest child, dinner felt particularly different once I was the last one at home.  I still looked forward to my mom’s food, good laughs, and seeing my parents in their “assigned” seats, but I didn’t prefer having two empty seats at the table each night.

So, those were the Meadows’ family dinners.  Of course, we still had our pizza nights and frozen meals when we were in the middle of a little league baseball season or things just got too hectic.  But, for the most part, we did dinner together. 

How do you do dinner with your family?  What family dinner stories do you have?

AND, I thought, if I don’t get that wish and all my children have to be the same gender, I wanted them to be girls.

So, from my lips to sealed in fate…. I was blessed with three lovely daughters.  It all happened so fast. I can’t be certain, because I didn’t have any sons, but I believe that raising girls is a completely different career than raising boys. 

Here’s how I remember the blur….

It’s a girl! – “Isn’t she lovely”

 It’s a girl! – “How cool is this”

“Hat Trick”!

My Little Ponies, Barbies and Dress up and random Barbie appendages
French Braids and Pony Tails – “no bumps please”
Dance class, more dance classes, more dance classes
Hand Clapping Games
“Star Sprinkles” 
Fears and Tears
Fights, Fits, Giggles – Hysteria 
Clothes flying out the upstairs window 
Sharks and Swimmers
Porcelain Dolls
Daisies, Brownies, Junior Girl Scouts and Cookie MOMster
Daddy’s Girls
Puppy
Hermit Crabs
Kittens!  x 3 
Hamster in the bedroom – nope… hamster in the basement – where is that hamster anyway?
Sharing rooms and (not) cleaning rooms - 
Second Phone Line, Nextel Talkies, 10 IM windows open

Sleepovers

Best Friends

Boyfriends

Dried Flowers

Prom dresses

Grad gowns

More grad gowns

Wedding dress!!

Granddaughter!!!!

It was fun and fast and furious!  We are truly blessed and so pleased about how it all has turned out.  We have three great daughters that are best friends/sisters and now a lovely, lovely granddaughter too!

I wish you daughters!

After working at Graco for a few months now, I’m beginning to better understand and appreciate the duties of parenthood and I am in awe of those who have two or more children.   I’m starting to wonder, “How do others do it? How will I do it?” 

No parent would deny that each baby is special and significant in its own way and the experience is always a new one.

From my conversations with a variety of second-time moms here at Graco, many things change when baby #2 arrives. 

Most agree that the first pregnancy is a time for “doting” and constant discussion of your baby.  Everyone wants to talk about your due date, gender, preparation, and excitement of baby #1.   Once you are on to the second, your life pretty much seems to remain the same.  After all, you have another child to care for, nuture, and educate about the new little one joining the family. 

Accoring to Melissa Parlaman, mother of two adorable girls, “For me, people seemed to discuss the pregnancy less and were more likely to continue everyday conversation when pregnant with my second baby.  Caring for another child in the meantime also allowed for a normal schedule, making my second pregnancy feel shorter than the first.  This was partially due to preparation and knowledge from my first pregnancy, but mostly because I continued on with my daily routine.”  

Everyone can relate to time flying by when we are in our daily routines. Our moms said to try to remember that the pregnancy experience is always new one – so take a step back to enjoy it and don’t let the time slip away!

Another expected difference is the evolution of baby gear over time.  Graco’s strollers, swings, and many other products (even our diaper bags!) are constantly being updated.  Not to mention the fashions continue to change with trends. 

Second time moms collectively agree it is important to be practical when purchasing new baby gear.  Sometimes, things need replacing (especially car seats after a certain period of time) but we allow use for all your babies, not just the first born.  Advice from our moms on what you will definitely need to purchase ? A second humidifier, books (don’t expect baby #1 to give up that easy!), hangers for new clothing, photo albums to document all the milestones for baby #2, and a new “blankey.” 

Each baby (no matter the birth order) brings her own unexpected surprises and differences.  How were things different for you?  How did you prepare your first for baby #2?  Share your “second time mom” stories!

Thanks so much to our friend Tiffany over at Lattes and Life for this adorable post! Make sure you pay her a visit and check out more great stories like this one.

Growing up an only child I often wondered what it would be like to have a sibling. Someone to play with, argue with, plot crazy schemes with. Someone who would have my back as we grew older, and be my confidant. Being an only child was very lonely, especially since I was raised by a single mom. Because of my experience I knew I wanted more than one child when the time came. I wanted my kids to experience the camaraderie and closeness that I always longed for.

When my son was almost two years old I got pregnant again. I envisioned his little toddler head leaning over my arms to stare at his baby sister, giving her sweet little kisses and hugs. But that was not exactly how it turned out. My son didn’t want anything to do with his sister. I’m not talking disinterested nonchalance. I’m talking complete avoidance! He screamed if we brought her anywhere near him. He wouldn’t touch her, wouldn’t acknowledge her at all. It broke my heart.

Time went on and he came to accept her. He still wasn’t impressed, and kept his distance. But he seemed to be resigned to the fact that she wasn’t going anywhere. Every once in awhile he’d get in her face and check her out, but he still ran away screaming if we brought her near him. I started to worry, wondering if they would ever be close. I saw friends having babies, and their toddlers wouldn’t leave the baby alone! Their toddlers wanted to hold and kiss the baby and were completely smitten!

Then one day, eight long months later, my son’s entire demeanor changed. Suddenly he started talking to his sister, and interacting with her. He started getting on the floor and playing with her. He ran around so she could crawl after him, and he’d give her a toy to play with if she had thrown hers out of reach. I watch them giggling together and my heart melts. I can see them becoming friends, not just siblings. And I couldn’t be happier.

Maya Angelou is quoted as having said, “I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.”

I love every moment of my babies working at it…every little moment.

This post was inspired by our friend Stephanie  when she commented on an earlier Heart to Heart post asking what the pros and cons were of having 3 children and what my experience has been with “Middle Child Syndrome”. 

Like many young women, I imagined my future brood long before I knew anything at all about real motherhood. I was certain that I wanted either 2 or 4 children after growing up as the eldest of 3.  The typical scenario of Sibling Rivalry played out constantly when I was a kid.  It was ALWAYS! 2 against 1 with my brothers and I…. and I was usually the “1”.  It seemed to me that the offending duo without exception included my middle brother.

I was a psych major and studied human development as an undergrad , so I’ve been exposed to theories of birth order personality traits and middle child syndrome.  Like the rest of us, I’ve also seen anecdotal examples and heard many a testimonial.  So back in BC (before children), I thought I knew a lot about the pros and cons of having 3 and I was of the opinion that the cons more than out-weighed the pros.

Many of the discussions cite some of the cons of being the middle child to be:
- Feelings of not having a special place in the family, so less connected
- Determination to become an opposite of the older sibling in some way
- Prone to negative attention-seeking
- Over-concern with what is fair – generating negotiating behaviors
- Hard-shelled emotionally
- Failure to launch, indecisive 

So how many children should  I have?
In my utopist view of the future I envisioned a home full of blissful sibling harmony. I vowed to have 2 or 4, but never 3. (I also thought I’d just go ahead and have boy/girl twins and get it all done with one pregnancy).

Once Bunny came into our lives, we reveled in every moment of parenthood. So much so, that by the time she was 18 months old, we couldn’t wait to begin to expand our family. We were so excited at the concept of doing all that again! I loved parenthood so much that if I could have afforded it, we’d have kept going to a dozen or more.  Sweetpea came along when Bunny was 2-1/4.

“1 is like none, 2 is like 10”.

What an awakening! We were living the saying. It was so difficult to keep being this perfect parent to Bunny and to simultaneously be the perfect parent to Sweetpea. It was in the midst of all this exhausting parental performance anxiety that #3 came along.  Boo Bear was born when Sweetpea was 16 months old. Having 3 kids under the age of 4 was all hubby needed  for his part of the decision that we would be out of the baby-making business, so even though Sweetpea was not a baby very long, she became the middle child.

Surprisingly, as parents we found the 3rd one brought us the confidence to just get on with business of parenting and not worry so much about being all things to all of the kids. We began to parent them as a group. It was probably beneficial that they were all girls and close in age, but our life was now about 3 kids on 1 parent, since we worked opposite shifts to minimize the time our kids would be in daycare (daycare then, was not what it is today).

So there we were with 3 afterall.  Was it ever 2 against 1 – you bet it was. Was there attention-seeking behavior – more than enough to go around. Was Sweetpea the the most difficult to parent – sometimes.  Now you would have to ask her her opinion of the experience, but I truly don’t think that Sweetpea suffered from being in the middle.  Maybe it was because it happened to her while she was so young, she never really had to have any identity crisis about being replaced as “the baby”.

I’m happy to report that in the “grownup” version of Sweetpea I see:

- The middle is a special place in our family.  Her ability to be “less connected” has made her bold enough to strike out on new territories on her own.  She can turn off and on the connection at will.

- No real determination to become an opposite of the older sibling.  She followed her older sister to the same college, but was never really in her shadow. 

- Prone to negative attention-seeking – She does revert to instigating a bit when she “comes back home”.

- Over-concern with what is fair – generating negotiating behaviors – She can definitely keep up her end of an argument and is very good at standing her ground.

- Strong emotionally – she has weathered many emotional hardships, and can put emotions aside to stay committed to a plan.  She doesn’t get attached easily, but once she does she is committed.

- Failure to launch, indecisive??? – Sweatpea has known since she was a little girl that she wanted to have a job that would let her live in France.  She struck out on her own just 1 year out of college.  She is there now despite leaving a boyfriend and her family in the US.  She stays connected via phone and SKYPE with her friends and family on an ongoing basis.

After raising 3 daughters, my opinion is that there are so many factors involved in personality. I’m convinced that it is the interplay of genetics, birth order, gender mix, spacing between siblings, extended family influences, peer environment and general life experiences that create the uniqueness that we each become.  My 3 kids were very close in age and all the same gender.  We were very lucky and fate worked well for us.  I feel blessed that our family is complete.

How many kids are you planning for your family?