is that old truism true?

My mother and her best friend always said to each other, "If I had given birth to my 2nd child first, I would have had an only child," meaning that the first baby was so good that they were lulled into thinking all babies were sweet, but that second baby was so different, so much work, that they would not have even considered another child after that experience. Tim and I have been blessed with healthy babies, sound sleepers, such calm toddlers that the past month or so has been a real trial to us both.

Julia Ellen clambers out of her crib and either screams at the door at all hours of the night (this morning at 5am) or climbs into Mary's bed, leaving her nowhere to sleep. Some nights it takes hours to get her back to sleep and one night this past week she kept us both awake for most of the night with inconsolable screaming. "Is this just a behavior issue or does she have something seriously wrong?" we asked each other since apparently one of the warning signs of leukemia is a similar inconsolable crying. Perhaps she needs to be moved from the crib, all the rest of the children were in a "big kid" bed by 2 years, if only because the crib was needed for the next arrival. But whatever the cause, I'm not so sure that if we had experienced this exhausting nighttime routine with our first child we would have had the stamina to have any more.