Joy in Pregnancy the Second Time Around- with a 10 Month Old

A wanted baby from a loving couple is always a joy. They will love being close in age when they get older. My 2, 21/2 years apart loved it when they were teens, they shared many friends and activities. It was also fun for them when they went places, as they could share rides etc. It will be very difficult at first, but figure that it will be for about 2 yrs, and that is not bad in the scheme of things.
There are many couples who would give their right arm to be so lucky to have 2 healthy children close together. So--- start enjoying, start making plans, find teens willing to come after school, to give you a break, stock up on diapers and anything to make your life easier.
You obviously were not concerned, because if you had been, you would have been protecting, so, enjoy what the 2 of you created.

My eldest and middle child are 13 months apart and my third child was born 28 months apart. They are all close but my eldest son and my middle daughter are particularly close. My middle daughter always had my son to look up to and I was amazed at how quickly she reached all her milestones. She had a perfect model to follow. I only had a few negative reactions from others which were easy to ignore. My second pregnancy flew by. I will admit that the first year with both in nappies (whoops, diapers) was tiring. They remain great friends and it is so easy now with a 7 year old, 6 year old and 4 year old. All the kids like the same things and play really well together. I am amazed at my friends who purposely spaced their children 4 years apart. Now that they have a 12 year old, 8 year old and 4 year old it is hard to find family vacation that they all like. Your son will love the baby. One trick I did use was to say to my son "Right now it is the baby's turn" and I read to him while I feed the baby. Then when the baby was crying but I needed to finish something with my son, I would tell my daughter "It is DS's turn now, I will be there in just a minute" While the infant didn't seem to care one way or another, it made my son feel better to see and hear that sometimes he came first. Good luck, you will love it!

I did not have this happen to me, but I have nephews that are 13 months apart. My brother and his wife had a surprise while she was still breastfeeding (not an effective form of birth control). Her second son was born 8 weeks premature, but was healthy. He came home at 10 days old. The worst part in the beginning was the older child kept wanting to love on the newborn and didn't understand why he couldn't. We were afraid at times that the baby would get hurt. Now 9 years later they are best friends. They very rarely argue. While growing up they went through the stages together. The younger one did everything early, potty train, sing the alphabet song etc. He was constantly around the older one doing everything together. The older one sometimes resents having a little brother tag along, but that would happen even if they were further apart in age. However, the doctors did say that one of the possible reasons the second child was premature was because her body did not have time to heal between pregnancies. Be careful and good luck.

A lot of your feelings may have to do with the exhaustion from already having one child, and maybe thinking you're "robbing" him of time with you and your husband without a sibling. We don't have a second one yet, but from what I understand from lots of our friends, it really is easier the second time around. You get into the groove faster after the baby's born, and you figure out how to balance 2 children very quickly. And you're not "robbing" your son's "only child" time, he's learning faster how to get along with others, and if you think about it, the second child never gets that "only child" time, and I'm sure all those second children out there say that they turned out just fine! Congratulations!