We’ve all heard of baby brain, that foggy or forgetful phenomenon many women experience during or after pregnancy, but Jessica Biel suffered from a different ailment with her second son (born five years after her first), what she calls “amnesia.”
Biel and husband Justin Timberlake have two sons, Silas, 6, and Phineas, 13 months. And with a handful of years in between each pregnancy, the couple seems to have forgotten a lot about baby care.
During Monday’s episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna, Biel was asked whether she experienced a “relearning process” with her second baby. “Oh, yes,” she said.
“I remember going, ‘When does he eat real food? What kind of cream? What bathtub?’ I felt like I forgot — it was amnesia,” she continued. “I started from scratch all over again, and I didn’t expect that. I just sort of thought, ‘Well, I’m an expert now. You know, I’ve done this once before, and I can do it again.’ No, I needed a full education all over again.”
Many second-time-around parents can relate! Caring for a baby is a hands-on experience, and if there’s a large age gap between children, parents may forget bath safety, swaddle tricks, or even how to hold their little one correctly.
Plus, the newborn stage is a new experience when you have an older child. Second-time parents have to multi-task better, managing a fussy baby while also giving attention to their sibling. And of course, no two children are alike, so what worked with the first won’t necessarily work with the second.
Luckily, it sounds like the Biel-Timberlake siblings are getting along well. Biel told Today that Silas, looking like a mini Justin in a recent photo, thinks little bro Phineas is “hilarious.”
“He finds him really funny, and the baby thinks that Silas has hung the moon. So, that’s really cute,” Biel said. “He, of course, wants to do everything that his older brother’s doing and follows him around everywhere. But Silas is the best big brother.”
Unless, of course, Phineas is trying to take his stuff: “He also is starting to get irritated about [Phineas] snatching his toys,” Biel said. “We’re in that mode.”
These celebrity moms make us all feel better when they share the highs and lows of parenting.
Source: Read Full Article