Tuesday, November 28, 2006

15 Things that Change When You Have a Baby

Saw this on Babycenter.com and thought I would post it and add my comments (non-bold typeface).

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms. Everything just slows down. You have no choice, because if you try to rush too much then you just end up frazzled and with a crying baby.
2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid. OMG! I spent the first week of her life with her sleeping on my chest with all the lights on, then in the bassinett next to the bed so that I could stick my hand on her chest & with all the lights on, then with a table lamp on, then with a night light, and finally in her own room in a crib with a audio baby monitor (it took 2 months to get to this point), all because of fears of SIDS. I still am scared of it, but not quite so neurotic.
3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices. Depends who you ask. Apparently daddy is much more selfish and it bothers him a little more. What I have noticed is that I am not really bothered that some people have drifted away from me because I am too busy with the baby. I think there are always times in your life that tests your friendships and the true friends continue to surface and others are weeded out.
4. You respect your body ... finally. So true. I pay so much attention to what I put in my body because she is going to get it from the breastmilk. And I have to appreciate my body the way it is because I don't want to lose my milk by going on some extreme diet & exercise routine. Plus, I don't want my child to think she has grow up worrying about her body size & shape.
5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way. You start to understand that the decisions they made were ones they made because they wanted to do the best for you, even if you thought they were ruining your life at the time.
6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own. It was heartbreaking watching her have that xray. When w clipped her finger when we clipped her nails, that was awful.
7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child. Like - baths should be fun and hugs are magical and peek-a-boo is fantastic.
8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago. See above comments too, but you also think about who you want your child to know and there are just some people who you don't want your kids to know because they just aren't that nice or positive.
9. Your heart breaks much more easily.
10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day. It is so hard not too. When I tried making out my xmas list it was hard not to think of things that I was going to use with her and not just things that were for myself.
11. Every day is a surprise. It sure is. You just never know what is going to happen or what she will do. I might even go so far as to say that every hour is a surprise.
12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!) I think this is funny because I'm always asking if she pooped and want to know if she pooped.
13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself. This is hilarious because even though I put makeup on everyday I don't really look at myself too much when I do it. The other day I noticed that my eyebrows REALLY needed to be plucked and my lips are REALLY dry. I look in the mirror a lot, but always with the baby and I'm always looking at her.
14. You become a morning person. Sleeping in is now 7am. Isn't that crazy? And how can you not be in a good mood when you go pick up your baby and she is so happy to see you in the morning.
15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power. I would give her the world if I could. I would do anything to keep her from feeling hurt or pain. Although, I know she needs to experience the world, even the bad stuff, and that breaks my heart. I never want her to grow up and date and have stupid boys screw with her. I know someday she will meet someone wonderful like her daddy, but there are a lot of stupid boys in between.

1 comment:

Skye said...

I love this list, but it will grow as she grows. And #2 never stops. There are still those moments of panic that something terrible happened to one of my boys when they oversleep. I have to go in and make sure they are ok, at least breathing and didn't get strangled by the blanket or some other dumb idea my paranoia puts in my brain... And Tye is 8, so I've been doing this for 8 years.