We just had Christmas feast with a 6 mo old and a 2 yrs + 6 mo old. Their Mom was spinning those plates on sticks non-stop all day.
Yes. Although from 1 to 0 was also difficult.
Going to 1 from 0 did completely change our lifestyle. That’s when I gave up my weekly golf outing, most of the nights out with friends and such. Going from 1 to 2 just made things busier.
Father of 4 spread out on average 5 years apart. All now only home when visiting.
Honestly there were so many other life issues going on at the same time that it is impossible to know and I think those issues play into it lots more than the number child.
How much adult life did you already have and how set in your ways? Just starting out on the career path, changing it? How far spaced out are the kids? How spaced out are you? 
Both parents healthy each time? (Assuming stable two parent household, which is a big assumption.) Personality of the kids. Extended family involved?
I will though throw a vote in for the change of no more kids in the house after having been child focused for literally three decades.
I do hope these other mentions of going down in number are also referencing kids growing up/moving out, and not deaths. I’ve not personally experienced that and can only imagine how hard that is to survive.
“From 1 to 0” is a typo, right? (in the next sentence you say “To 1”). If not, you have my deepest condolences
Or like the couple I know who decided they wanted a second child when the first one was a year old. Boom, twins, so three kids under two. Shortly thereafter, there was a surprise pregnancy: twins again. So five kids in just over 3 years. The husband got a vehicle that’d accommodate 5 car seats and also got a vasectomy. Not sure in what order.
I know what order I would have chosen. 
0 to 1 was the biggest life change. We planned our family so no surprises/whoops involved and we did everything you’d expect new parents do to prepare for the arrival of their child. There was still so much stress and worry after our daughter was born. Everything is new and a lot of it is frightening for first time parents.
When we had our 2nd, about 3 years later it was a different stress. We knew what to expect but at the same time the passage of time tends to soften the memories of how difficult those first few months with a newborn can be. You forget how drop-dead tired you are all the time. You forget how you operate in a haze and in a routine without much thought because you’re just so tired. And then there is a toddler added to the mix who needs your attention all the time too. You’re managing keeping a toddler entertained and getting the attention she needs plus managing a new born. I thought having two would be two times the work - turns out it feels like 3.5 times the work.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a typo.
We went 0 → 1 → 0 → 1 → 2
So very sorry to hear that. As said above, 1 to 0 is the worst transition. May you never face such a thing again.
I’m very sorry to hear that.
Agreed. Zero to one meant huge lifestyle changes. Less going out to theater and music venues, less eating out. Any trip became a military operation. The rest were just adding on responsibility.
ETA: posted before reading entire thread. So sorry for anyone who had to transition back to zero.
For me, 0 to 1 was trivial. I’d been waiting most of my life to have a kid, and there was nothing I was giving up that I wasn’t swapping for something better.
I know that sounds dishonest and conceited, but — there you are. One of my lifetime happiest memories is having the kid throw up on me.
I’ve never assumed that 1 to 2 would be as positive, but I never got the chance to find out.
Huh? It doesn’t sound like that at all. It’s certainly very different from my experience, but that hardly makes it sound “dishonest and conceited.”
It’s not dishonest or conceited at all - and may be why some people find it more difficult going from 1 to 2. They’d always been prepared to be a parent, but 2 children are two little people and they can be very different to each other.
So then it’s not about being a parent, in terms of not going out as much, having sleepless nights, putting the needs of a child way ahead of your needs, etc, because you were prepared for that, but also being a referee between warring sibs and dealing with one child going to bed earlier than the other and multiple school drop-offs etc.
For most people I think 0-1 is always going to be harder though. It’s such a big change. And that first baby isn’t always planned - most of the responses on this thread have assumed they are, but unplanned pregnancies aren’t exactly rare. Even within a marriage, you might think it’ll take a while to become pregnant and bingo, there’s the blue line the first month after you stop taking the pill.
The second being unplanned isn’t that rare either, of course, but at least then you’re already a parent.
I think I was on the opposite side of the spectrum while also finding 2 much worse than one. I don’t like kids and had no interest in kids despite wanting my own. I figured having kids would suck, like seriously blow, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected. By the time we had number 2 we had things figured out and it got much worse. Even two years later we’re still mostly underwater and it’s looking to get worse not better as the kids are getting into different activities in different places.
How did it get worse? Is there an awkward age gap?
(Don’t answer if you don’t want to!)
Can I ask why you wanted kids if you don’t like them and thought it would suck?
That happened to some friends of mine. They were a little annoyed because they’d been hoping to enjoy a few months of not having to worry about contraception.
And my condolences to @TokyoBayer and anyone else in a similar position.
I wouldn’t say “dishonest and conceited”. I think the author perhaps assumes a more cynical person might feel they are being disingenuous, but there certainly are people who are very eager to have children.
I wouldn’t call myself one of those people. I was certainly more apprehensive about having children. The main reason being that I’m not so keen on swapping out the things I like doing for cleaning diapers and soccer practice.
Two kids a few years apart are fun because you can watch them interact with each other. Although I tend to get very nervous when they are quiet because it usually means they are planning something.
Plus I get to build a lot of elaborate constructs out of Lego without looking like a weirdo.
I don’t think the issue is whether people are likely to have children. I think the author doesn’t think people will believe there was nothing he " was giving up that I wasn’t swapping for something better".
Of course, that’s not true. Most people who want kids believe that they aren’t giving up anything that they aren’t swapping for something better, so they have no problem believing that part. I don’t think it sounds dishonest - but I do think that perhaps the author is using “trivial” differently that most people would. It almost seems that he is using “trivial” to mean “worth it” - and that I would disagree with. It wasn’t “trivial” to adjust to not getting a full night’s sleep, it wasn’t trivial to change my life to accommodate childcare issues - everything from not being able to spontaneously decide to go somewhere/do something that’s not appropriate to bring a baby to being unable to set my work schedule based solely on my own preferences. Those were major adjustments - which is an entirely separate issue from whether they were worth it.
I can’t speak for the author, but I would agree with you as it applies to my feelings about having kids. It was one of my biggest concerns and continues to be my main frustration. Like my plan today was to place an order at Target (for the kids, ironically), go pick it up in a few hours, maybe grab some lunch and then come back home. But then my wife got wind of it and she starts looking for shit to tack on, then decides she wants to just come and pick it up and oh yeah of course the kids have to come too. So what was going to be a 30 minute reprieve now turns into an all day affair.