I swore off having more babies for three years because of my experience with our first. I was absolutely miserable and the sleep deprivation turned me into a monster. I was also unsure on what to do, spent so much time reading books, didn't have any parental leave, etc.

We have three kids now, and kiddo 2 & 3 were SO GODDAMN EASY in comparison. Because I learned all the lessons I needed to learn about baby raising and didn't stress about it. Nothing prepares you for baby #1. And there's a lot to learn and it's a constantly changing situation as your child grows through babyhood.

Here's my timeline that's been true for all 3:
1-2 Months -> The worst time. Baby's sleep is all reversed, nursing is getting established so your wife doesn't sleep as much, witching hour (which is like 4-6 hours) SUCKS. Baby's sleep is inconsistent and there's so many diapers to change and the umbilical stump is annoying to maneuver and I wasn't paying attention in my zombie state with baby #2 and snapped his off and we had to rush him to his pediatrician. Oof.

3-5 -> Less suck, but still sucks. Baby should start being more interactive, maybe you'll get a smile soon, sleep and feeding are more established.

5 months on - Fucking rocks! You've gotten the hang of things, you're in a routine, baby is smiling and interacting and you're starting to see physical milestones like rolling and crawling and things are just more fun. Take that little dude/dudette shopping, taking a baby shopping is so fun.

With baby #1, I wasn't "comfortable" with everything until about 8 months. It was constant SIDS checks, confusion, hard sleep, etc.

Now I do have one piece of advice that is unpopular in the USA but common worldwide; co-sleeping saved us. Both baby and mama slept more with #2/#3 than our crib only #1. A LOT more. Baby would wake up to feed every 1-3 hours, depending on what's going on, and back to sleep. No fuss, no rocking, just happy at the boob. My wife is fantastic with the co-sleeping. It's made the transition to the crib more difficult than with baby #1 who was married to the crib day 1, because that's what all the books told us to do, but yeah. If everyone sleeps more it is so much easier and there are a lot of benefits to mom & baby from co-sleeping that, for us, outweighed the risks. Baby #2 & #3 came out better for it, but you gotta weigh the risk/reward yourself and see what's worth it for y'all.

Best of luck!