Baby No. 2

This isn't your first time you've got experience and Thomfidence' now—but your hands are pretty full. Get ready to be a bigger (even happier!) family. 

- Cariwira Dineen

AS I SQUATTED on the bathroom floor at my public library, it became apparent that getting up from my current position might not be possible. Eight months pregnant with my second, I was in full-fledged potty-training mode with my 2-year-old daughter, Charlotte. During her third trip to the toilet in 30 minutes, I bent down to help her wipe, somehow lost my balance, and ended up face-to-face with the toilet paper dispenser. “Get up, Mommy!” my toddler screeched as she started swinging her legs into my face. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

I eventually managed to rescue myself and my daughter from that cramped stall, but the experience made me realize how much harder that pregnancy was from my first one. Last time I got nightly foot and back rubs from my husband; this time, I was lucky if he gave me a pat on the back. I barely cleaned while my daughter baked for nine months; our child-free house had just stayed tidy. With my second, I found myself vacuuming up crushed snacks daily, constantly reloading the dishwasher, and crawling to corral toys. My friends and family—the ones who were so excited for my monumental metamorphosis into a mother and showered me with gifts and home -made dinners and desserts when my daughter was born— barely dropped off a casserole the second time around.