<Gee, Diane, I guess either I'm strange or there was some other
mammalian=20=

instinct at work when baby number two arrived.>
I had a similar response, although I can completely understand how someone
might respond as Diane describes.  It was beyond the sense that my older
child was somehow now bigger, more mature than she was the day before.  I
was at least a mama bear, probably a tigress.  It was pretty intense.  As I
recall (youngest is 13 now), it seemed to become more intense with each
child.  Maybe all those pups running amok during the early postpartum period
had me nipping at their heels more than if I had fewer children.  Although,
I do remember my children's responses when the youngest was unsettled or
unhappy--everyone's attention turned toward the little one, soothing him or
her.  Then again, maybe I projected that attitude onto them, teaching them
with my cues that the littlest/youngest among them must be protected.  Of
course now the youngest is the biggest, changing all dynamics.

Mary Wagner-Davis

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