Comparisons: Connor vs. Allie

It's hard not to compare Connor and Allie, now that we have both of them. At first it wasn't a good thing because pretty much we love everything about Allie's birth and first month more that Connor's, and I  was worried I'd start to resent Connor. But then I realized that the only reason we're able to appreciate Allie so much is because we had Connor first.

Labor and Delivery:

Connor:
Painful Contractions for 26 hours before the hospital would admit me.
Allie:
Induced on the day I chose. Painful contractions for a half hour before my epidural.

Nursing:

Connor:
Champion. Didn't even have to figure out the latch. He just did it right.
Nursed each side for about 20 minutes each time, so total about 40 minutes every 3 hours.
Allie:
She's now 3 weeks old, and it still hurts, and I still have to fix her latch every time. I've talked to multiple lactation consultants, and they're just glad that she's gaining a lot of weight.
Nurses 5 minutes on one side every hour and a half.

Hospital Stay:

Connor:
He cried and fussed the whole time, and we couldn't figure out why. We even had nurses come in to try and help us.
Allie:
Almost didn't send her to the nursery because she slept so much and so well.

First night home:

Connor:
I was up all night crying because I didn't know how to take care of Connor. I had no help because Daniel had to go to school the next day and I didn't want to wake up him.
Allie:
She was up all night, but Daniel and I took 2 hour shifts, so we each were up half the night. My mom was here and she took care of Connor.

First week home:

Connor:
He cried and fussed all the time.
Allie:
After that first night, she pretty much just slept all the time.

Sleeping:

Connor:
He still hates sleeping. He never slept as a baby, and he fights sleep now as a toddler.
Allie:
She loves sleeping. That's pretty much all she does. We have to force her to have some awake time so she can figure out day and night. At nights she only wakes up once or twice to eat, then goes right back to sleep.

Bonding:

Connor:
Neither Daniel nor I bonded with Connor for a really long time. We took care of him because we knew it was our responsibility, not really because we were so in love with him and wanted the best for him. (don't worry, now we love him to pieces).
Allie:
From day 1 we've all been madly in love with her.

For the most part, Allie wins in all categories. But we are so grateful for the struggle we had with Connor because we can appreciate Allie so much more.

I'm so glad they are both different ages and different stages. I imagine twins would be really hard because the comparisons would all happen at the same time. We love Connor and Allie so much and are so happy to have our perfect family of four.