A Changed Person

I recently read an article titled "They Should've Warned Me."  To sum it up, the author listed all kinds of warnings she got while she was pregnant (enjoy your sleep now, your body will never be the same, your relationship with your husband will change, you'll never have time for yourself...)  But then the author went on to list what she never was warned about (that you'll love your husband even more when you watch him as a daddy, that waking up to take care of your new bundle is rewarding despite the exhaustion, that having time for yourself really meant time that you were missing your baby...)  Then she ends the article by saying that they should've warned her that becoming a mommy would change everything about her, but that she wouldn't go back and change a single thing.  (If you're interested in reading the original article, you can find it here: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jenny-studenroth-gerson/they-shouldve-warned-me_b_6471948.html).

This article summed up so much of what I've been thinking and feeling lately.  As soon as I had Brady, and especially once I had Henry, I became a completely different person.  I worried in my 20s and even my very early 30s that perhaps I wasn't cut out to be a mother.  I liked doing things when I wanted to do them, I liked not worrying about anyone else's schedule, I liked sleeping in on the weekends and having evenings to myself, traveling was a breeze.  I couldn't picture myself getting up even a few minutes earlier, let alone a half hour or more in order to get another being ready...it was hard enough to get myself out of bed, ready and out the door each morning.  I glared at the moms and dads boarding airplanes with infants, hoping that they (and their crying baby, since that's all I thought babies did on planes) would choose not to sit by me.  I worried that I was too selfish to make such a lifestyle change, even if it was for my own child.

Brady changed me into a person that could worry more about another person than I did about myself.  While first pregnant with him, I was still a bit of my selfish self.  Yet once I started seeing him on ultrasounds and feeling him flutter around I became much more worried about him than I was about myself.  And then once Henry came along, I completed that full personality change.  I no longer cared that my house wasn't picked up and clean; I didn't care that the only dishes I had done for two weeks were bottles; I didn't care that my clothes were still dirty as long as Henry had things to wear.  I wasn't bothered that a run to Target was actually a two-hour process...making sure Henry was fed, changed, happy, and that the errand was completed before he became hungry or dirty or unhappy again.  Nothing seemed to matter nearly as much as snuggling and loving this tiny little creature that had taken over my life.

So to all those soon-to-be mamas that follow us...don't worry!  Don't worry about the lack of sleep, the laundry piling up, the house that needs to be cleaned.  Don't worry about the me-time that you will no longer have in abundance, or that you and your husband's relationship will change.  Instead, just enjoy every single moment.  The dishes will still be there, but your baby will only be your baby for a short time.  I am a mother, and it has changed me in so many ways for the better!