What has changed in our lives since having a baby? Well...pretty much everything.
1. Bedtime and wake-up time. We used to stay up watching TV or reading until 11 pm most weeknights, and even later on the weekends. Now we get in bed at 9 o'clock every night, with lights out by 10 at the latest. I used to roll out of bed around 7:30. I gave myself just enough time to make myself presentable, never a minute to spare, and was out the door a little after 8. Now I'm up around 6:20 and am showered and ready for the most part by 7, when I wake up AW to eat. It takes 20 minutes to get him fed, burped and changed, and then another 20 minutes or so to get all my stuff together and finish getting dressed. I still often feel rushed and am thinking I may have to wake up even earlier!
2. Sleep in general. I have always loved my sleep. I always joked that I was neither a night owl, nor an early bird. I liked to go to bed relatively early and still sleep in as long as possible. I just like sleep! Lack of sleep was probably the biggest adjustment for me. Where before I needed 9+ consecutive hours to feel rested, now I can function pretty well on 6-7 choppy hours. Even though AW is sleeping through the night for the most part, I still get up to pump around 3 am. It's usually hard for me to fall back asleep, but even still, I'm usually fine in the morning.
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| A common late afternoon scene in our house these days |
3. Finances. No surprise here, but man are babies ever expensive! If I had to guess, between diapers, wipes, clothes, daycare, babysitters, health/grooming products, co-pays, and all the other random things that come up, we spend close to $1,500 a month on AW. That's $1,500 of stuff we now have to factor in that we didn't before. That's crazy! What in the world did we spend that money on before?! Oh, I know...
4. Fewer dates, outings, less "me time." Matt and I went out all the time. Movies, dinner, happy hour shopping, etc. Matt golfed a lot. I took a lot of yoga classes and shopped all the time. We went out of town often and pretty much always had weekend plans with our friends. We were on the go all the time, which meant we were spending money on entertainment all the time. Now we're doing good to go out to eat once a week, albeit at 5:00, before it gets crowded, and with plenty of time to get home to start bedtime routine. Now that we are comfortable leaving AW with a babysitter, we're also shooting for a monthly date night.
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| A rare night out this past weekend...sans Asher Wade |
5. Messy house. I'm by no means a clean freak, but I do like a neat and tidy house. Even with two dogs, this was never really a problem because in addition to our cleaning lady that comes every other week (bless her), we used to spend a few minutes every evening straightening up and wiping down. Not so much the case anymore since we are so busy in the evenings with AW, and trying to get everything ready for the next day. Now we hardly bother with any cleaning and just count the days till our cleaning lady comes. And how one little person can cause so much clutter, I'll never understand. Not to mention the "baby stuff" everywhere.
6. Paranoia. I'm convinced I am now the most paranoid person on the face of the Earth. Every day I have some new worry, and I spend a good portion of time thinking about all the things that could possibly cause harm to my baby, and ways to prevent them from happening. It seems like each new day brings about a new worry.
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| Good thing we have Riley around to supervise and protect |
7. Your heart. It's funny because you know how people always say that "you won't be able to imagine life without them?" Well...for a long time Matt and I did remember life without him and we often reminisced on the way things used to be and everything we would do and how easy it was in general to just worry about ourselves. Life was carefree, stress free, easygoing, but it was also selfish, sporadic and completely focused on ourselves. Although we lost a lot of freedom (and money, ha!) since having a baby, our hearts are more full than they have ever been. I look at my baby boy everyday and am in awe of the fact that he's mine...that God picked us to be his parents and entrusted us with one of His own. Just when I think I can't love him anymore, or feel any more lucky, I wake up the next morning and feel it even more. I had no idea my heart could be so full. It's crazy, really.
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| Couldn't love him more...until tomorrow |
1 comment:
Loved this perspective- I think a lot about the adjustments to come in February, so this was a good read:)
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