A Baby Changes Everything

I've been thinking about this post for awhile as unsolicited advice for my internet friends that don't have kids yet.....consider this your warning!

I always heard that "kids are a lot of work, but they are worth it."
I don't think anyone was ever totally honest with me about how much work there would be and how they would change your life.

So here's your warning-- make sure you are REALLY READY to have kids. Beyond ready ladies.

How much work?
The work isn't hard but it is CONSTANT, 100% of the time all the time.
We can all fix a bottle, change a diaper, get up during the night but ladies....there is no break, there is no off duty. You will always need to have your eye on what that little baby is doing even when they are doing nothing to make sure they don't get into something!

Another misconception of our feminist culture, I thought that parenting would be 60% mom 40% dad - HELLO again, let's try 95% mom 5% dad. And Noah is a good dad. Especially if you breastfeed, this baby is attached to you all the time and prefers mom over dad any day of the week (I cave).

How they change your life?
My life, what life? I had a life and it has been gone for a solid 2 years. Most everything you used to do you will have trouble doing now, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, running into target, running into the pharmacy, planting flowers and all very tiring and hard to get done, even if you want to do these things.

For a dose of reality, I had 45 min of "mommy time" last night to go for a walk, prior to that I was able to go out 2 weeks ago with some ladies in Charleston for 4 hours, prior to that I went out of town last August by myself.

Here's another example, Wigwam was born mid-May and I remember having a conversation mid-July with a girlfriend and saying that I had had 3 hours total by myself since she was born---and these free hours included the luxury of going to the grocery store by myself. Think I'm kidding??? um no.
All this being said we have uninvolved grandparents and we're fairly new to to town ourselves (2 years) so we don't have a huge network of friends to help out.

To end on a positive note....this baby will make you feel more special than anyone ever can.

If you have a question about the shock factor and want it straight, send a question and I'll tell ya!