On (not?!) being ready for a second kid

As the due date of my second kid inches closer and closer, people keep asking me:

Are you ready?

We’ll…yes. Yes, in the sense that we have all the equipment—the stroller, the car seat, the diapers, the mental list of TV shows to binge.

But psychologically? I don’t know how prepared I am.

I remember, before our first kid, there was a different refrain: Get as much sleep as possible.

It was silly advice—sleep isn’t a bankable commodity; I can’t put extra sleep into a savings account and draw on it when needed. But it was also frustrating advice because it was advice; advice sets an expecting first-time parent wallowing about their profound ignorance.

“Are you ready?” is an improvement in prenatal refrain, not because I feel ready, but because I feel comfortable in my own ignorance about my readiness. I’m comfortable answering: “I have NO idea.”

And I don’t! We have the “stuff” for life with a newborn, but there’s no way to really prepare for the storm of exhaustion and delirium and joy and frustration about to beset our household.

And I’m OK admitting that.