Dear Second-Time Parent,

No one tells you how heavy it can feel—to hold space for two tiny hearts when yours is already stretched thin.

Your toddler needs more hugs, more patience, more of you. Your newborn needs everything. And somewhere in all that need, you’ve quietly forgotten what it feels like to just be held.

You are not failing. You’re in the messy middle of loving two babies in two very different ways—and it is so much.

There are moments when the guilt piles up: the toddler cries while you’re feeding the baby, the baby cries while you’re comforting the toddler, and you want to cry too—but there’s no quiet place to fall apart.

But hear this: you are doing something remarkable. You are teaching your toddler that love still lives here, even when it looks different. You are showing your newborn what tenderness is, just by holding on.

They don’t need perfect. They need you.

One day, your children will look back and say, “This was my safe place.” And oh, what a legacy that is.