I had my second son on the 26th of May 12 years after I had my first son. I'll tell you what, it's a LOT harder to have a new born when you are almost 40 than when you are in your 20s.
I'm less than 3 weeks into night feeds and already it's killing me. I can't make it through a day without having a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. With my first son, I didn't even start to feel the effects of sleep deprivation until he was 2 years old! He started sleeping through the night when he was 4 months old, but I have absolutely no memory of being tired in those early months. It was just after 2 years of waking up at 5.30am, 7 days a week that tired me out. I'm a natural night owl and my son is still a morning person. My newest son, however, seems to be taking after his daddy and enjoys a lie-in. Please, let that continue.
The other thing I've noticed is different this time is that I'm much more aware of 'nappy-changing accidents'. By this age, my first son had already peed on my shirt and on his dad's face and pooed all over my bed. I've not had any of those kind of accidents with my new son... Though he did spend a few minutes with his dad in bed the other morning whilst I made breakfast, and covered our bed in poo, but that was a lesson for my husband to learn...I'm also much more keen to start losing my pregnancy weight than I was last time. I'm aware that it's harder to lose the weight with each child and when you're over 30. I've already started walking every day and am doing very gentle abdominal exercises. With my first son, all of my pregnancy weight came off over time, now I'm keen to work very, very hard to lose it as soon as possible. I guess I still just want to be a yummy mummy.
I can definitely feel my age now though. My back hurts a bit more and I'm generally just more 'achy' than I was last time. I've not really felt 'my age' until I got pregnant. I hope I go back to normal cos this feeling old thing isn't much fun.
I am, however, much more relaxed about it all this time. I have more money in the bank and feel my career is 'established', whereas last time in my mid-20s I was very aware that a long break so early on in my working life could have serious consequences, so was keen to start working again as soon as possible. I actually did one day of work when my first son was 3 weeks old though didn't go back to work properly until he was 5 months old.
This time, I'm very happy to just play it all by ear. I want to enjoy this little guy as much as possible cos I suspect he may be the last baby I have.