Emry vs. Ethan

I never want to be one of those parents that compares her children with one another. The fact that I have a girl and a boy will help prevent that. Naturally, Ethan is not going to be like Emry. I can’t see him walking around the house with one of his stuffed animals, patting it on the back and comforting it as if he is a mother. Or vice versa. I know there will be things my little boy will do that will have never crossed Emry’s mind to try.

However, sometimes I can’t help comparing them. After all, my full experience as a mom has been raising Emry. So, now raising Ethan, it’s easy to compare what he does to what Emry had done. Both favorably and unfavorably. For in some ways, they are the same, just as all babies are similar in certain ways. In so many ways, they are very different.

Emry was a very contented, easy baby. She never minded being put on the floor and left there while I wandered about doing chores, preparing meals, scrapbooking or whatever. Ethan, on the other hand, hates to be left alone. If you leave him on the floor and walk off, he’ll be okay for a couple of minutes before you hear his protests. Perhaps that comes from being a second born with a sister usually about.

Emry stayed wherever you set her until she was a year old. She rolled over at four or five months, but she didn’t use that skill as a mode of transportation much. And since she didn’t crawl until a week after she turned one, I could sit her down and expect to find her in that same place an hour later. Ethan, I don’t think, will be that way. He’s squirmy, and likes to “kickbox” (as he did in the womb) and already digs his heels into the floor and pushes himself back several inches. Will Ethan be as happy in once place as Emry was? I have my doubts.

Ethan is also fussier than Emry. If he isn’t happy about something, he lets us know. And he keeps on letting us know. If Emry cried for a long time, it meant something was seriously wrong. If Ethan cries for a long time, well, he’s just trying to make himself heard. And perhaps he has his reasons. I confess I’m guilty of not paying as much attention to him as I did Emry. Another trial of a second born.

On the other hand…

Ethan is my cuddler. The only time Emry wants to sit with me is to be read to or because I’m feeding Ethan and she feels neglected. Emry WILL NOT cuddle just to cuddle or be held because she’s tired. Ethan, however, would be held and cuddled 24/7 if you’d let him. I can’t do that, but I do spoil him sometimes and let him sleep in my arms if Emry is napping or in bed at night.

Ethan also eats better than Emry. I thought Emry ate decently, and she probably did for her. But Ethan latched on and knew exactly what to do within an hour of birth…and he hasn’t stopped yet. Gone are the worries I constantly had with Emry over producing enough!

And because he eats so well, he also grows faster. At one month, Emry weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces. Ethan weighed in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces. So while the doctor was concerned because he is quite small on the charts, I was leaping for joy that he is gaining so well.  I have no doubt he’ll outgrow his sister quickly…even if he never catches up to his much bigger cousins.