It’s hard to believe that I’m writing this but we are almost to the finish line with baby number two! I’m 39 weeks pregnant and just days away from our next big life shift, something I’m so excited for but to be honest, also a little nervous for, naturally!

Having done this before, and not that long ago (my daughter is 19 months old), there are fewer unknowns which is a blessing, and in some ways, a curse. I now know how hard the recovery from birth is, how exhausting the sleep deprivation really is, and how demanding breastfeeding will be. At the same time, I’ve experienced how unbelievably magical it all is and how quickly it flies by. Something that I believe will keep me grounded in gratitude through the good times and the hard times.

So what do we plan on doing differently with this next bebe? So much of it is going to depend on her; every baby is unique and different in their own way, but based on what we learned from the first one, there are three specific things we plan to do differently:

1. Not hiring a night nurse
With Leo, we had a night nurse live with us for the first three months and this time, we are not hiring a nurse (for now at least!). It was really helpful the first time around for all of the unknowns – I had never changed a diaper, burped a baby, swaddled a baby or did basically anything for a baby, so the educational component was KEY. Now that I have that under my belt, I don’t see a big benefit simply because I’ll be breastfeeding and all that work lands on me anyway. For the extra 15 minutes of sleep here or there thanks to a second set of hands to burp/swaddle/diaper the baby after a feed, it just doesn’t seem worth the expense. Instead, I’m loading up on more daytime help.

2. Sleep train earlier
We were pretty loose about sleep training with our oldest. If she wanted to feed in the middle of the night, I fed her, sometimes to the tune of 3 times per night until she was one. Not ideal for mama whatsoever, and what I learned was, once we fully committed to sleep training at 13 months, she took to it like a pro. It just required discipline on our end. Most babies don’t need to breastfeed in the middle of the night after they’re 6 months old so this time around, I’m going to attempt to sleep train earlier. Fingers crossed!

3. Have an open mind to baby-led weaning
I was scared shitless to try baby-led weaning and instead opted for purees with Leo. I still plan on doing primarily purees when the time comes but given that I will also have a fully eating toddler this time around, I want to be more open-minded toward blw. It will certainly make for less work on my end, my youngest will likely want to eat what her sister is eating and people who believe in blw believe it makes for an overall better eater.

As for what else we do differently, time will tell!