7 surprising things about your second baby

When you welcome your second baby into the world, you feel like you should be quite used to this parenting gig by now, after all that practice with your firstborn.

Or - in reality - your older child's bottom suddenly looks ginormous compared to your newborn's teeny, skinny, wrinkly, little bum.

It's all that practice translating the different cries of your firstborn. This time round, it's much easier to distinguish between that 'waah waah' that means they're hungry and the cry that means they're tired.

Honestly they kip for hours on end. BUT, in that case, why wasn't it easy with your first baby? Back then, you remember feeling permanently knackered and hardly having time to wee. It's easy to forget just how long newborns nap for.

Thing is this time round, whenever they do, you're obliged to play an imaginary game with a plastic dinosaur with your older child instead of grabbing a nap yourself.

Two children, two hands - but somehow it feels like more than double the workload. The return of sleep deprivation with a newborn has a lot to do with it, but there are also times when you just feel pulled in two completely different directions and don't know what to do.

Do you go to your baby, who's screaming to be fed, or to your older child, who's sobbing because he's dropped his soft toy bunny down the loo?

You instinctively know the best way to hold a baby and ways to soothe them to sleep, and you are an expert at all mum-things that were such a challenge the first time round. But baby number two can chuck you a curve ball. Whether it's wrestling with your boobs when your first baby breastfed like a dream, or crying every time they travel in the car even though your firstborn always used to drop off to sleep the minute you turned the key in the engine.

Yes - you're more clued up with baby number two, but that doesn't mean you'll - at times - be completely thrown too.

Ok - so we know in our heart of hearts that all babies are different, but a funny thing happens when you're pregnant and haven't yet met your unborn baby. You imagine they'll either turn out just like a mini-you (or a mini-your-partner) or that they'll be just like your firstborn.

And of course, they are their own unique selves. In looks and personality. If your first baby was a breeze and your second arrives whipping up a bit of a storm, this can come as a bit of a shock.

You might not have admitted it out loud, but there was a part of you that was unconvinced you could ever love another baby with the all-consuming passion that you have for your firstborn. But you do.

It's amazing how your heart just grows, and there's room enough to love another just as much.