As the oldest in the family, it's easy to be resented. (I know, I know, every birth-order place has its problems.) But the oldest is always the first to do things that the younger ones can't do yet, the one who is usually left in charge when the parents aren't home, and the one who has a baby book that is actually filled out. When the younger kids figure the last one out, that's the one they hang onto longest. (That and the fact there's a only a polaroid picture of the seventh child at the age of three with the rest of the family and you can only see part of his face while there's an entire album of baby pictures of the first- actually I don't think Jesse is resentful about this at all, it's just his wife who is.)
My own family is a great example of this problem. Diego's babybook is filled out almost entirely, Eliana's book has a few pages filled in, and I haven't even purchased a book for baby on the way and am wondering if it would be worth the money. Diego has baby pictures plastered all over the house, while most of Eliana's baby pictures have yet to make it into frames... in my defense, Diego's newer pictures haven't made it into frames since Eliana's birth, either. My pregnancy with Diego was well researched, I knew the week and day I was at all times, Eliana- I kept track of the week and did a bit more research trying to figure out if there was any way I could avoid another c-section (didn't work). This time along, people ask me how far along I am and I can't answer with anything other than my due date. My sister has given me a bad time about this... mainly because she knows what it's like to be the slighted third and whenever she sees my lack of frames of Eliana, or anything else that might make the younger child feel less important, she lets me know about it.
What she doesn't know about yet, is what it's like to be a mom of more than one. It's never been my intent to slight the others, I just don't have the same time I had before. And that's the real matter, it's not that parents love the first more than the others, it's just that they have more time before they have more than one. And as much as I hate to say this, she's setting her first up for the same resentment as I did mine... except maybe worse. You see, yes, my youngest child won't get his/her own room or a new nursery theme, but at least my third baby won't be hurt by the fact that I didn't design him his own fabric for his custom made bedding like her third will. That's right. You read it right, she designed her own fabric for this baby. Wow, it's awesome! It's gorgeous and could make any child envious.
Here's a sample.
Here's what the finished product should look like.
Can you imagine what the rest of the nursery will be like if this is the effort that she's putting into the crib linens? It's going to be incredible. Now, if she can just keep it up for the rest of her babies- Good luck with that, Elisabeth. (Oh, and even if you aren't able, I promise, they'll survive... Jesse did!)
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