November 16, 2001 - Friday
I've been trying to remember when Harry started sleeping on a schedule. It seems like it happened pretty quickly and I see that by 12 days old there were already clear signs that he was sleeping fairly regularly. At 13 days old, Jeremy is not on a schedule, at least not one that suits his parents sleep habits and that's probably our fault. With Harry, we were regularly used to staying awake until close to midnight and were able to interact with Harry during the evening hours before turning in at night. Presumably, that established waking hours and sleeping hours. With Jeremy, those evening hours is now the post-Harry part of the day when neither of us is full of energy to entertain a newborn, who, on the surface, seems as content as we are to relax and nap. The direct or indirect result is that the longest stretch Jeremy has gone at night is somewhere between 3.5 and 4 hours, while Harry was sleeping five hours in a row at this point. Of course, anecdotal evidence suggests that Jeremy's behavior is far more consistent with normal babies and that we were just fortunate with Harry. I'd hoped that since Jeremy was born bigger still than Harry that he might sleep just as well or better, but so far we have not won the sleep lottery a second time.

I'm sure it's too early to identify many real differences between Harry and Jeremy, though it's not too early to see the differences emerging on the attention each gets. We now know that newborns "are easy." Taking care of an infant is nothing compared to watching a toddler who's running around constantly. Of course, when Harry was a baby, we thought he needed constant attention and distraction, too. With Jeremy, we realize how easy infants can be if necessary. And, with a toddler around, necessity is an easily grasped concept.

I've been thinking lately about the amount of attention a first child gets as compared to a later ones and how, stereotypical, second kids (especially middle children), are more independent. Isn't it likely that our doting attention to Harry his whole life has made him more expectant that we will always be there to entertain him, protect him, and direct him? Is that good or bad? Everything is good in moderation, I suppose, so with Jeremy we just need to make sure that he doesn't get moderated out of the attention picture all together by a demanding older brother.


Comments, opinions?