Changes

When you are pregnant with your first child, people like to frequently remind you that your life is about to change forever.  I'm assuming they are talking about the lack of sleep, the lack of time, the happiness of holding a baby, etc.  The changes everyone anticipates.  However, I have noticed many other changes in myself and in my life since having a baby.  Here are just a few:

Bye Bye Modesty - Okay to be fair, I was warned specifically about this one, but I doubted it.  I have always been very modest and people always told me I'd get over that after having a baby.  I had no idea.  In the past week, I have pulled my shirt up and nursed my baby outside at the Country Club and inside the middle of Macy's.  What baby wants, baby gets. 

Definition of 'clean' - Emerson likes to spit up.  She spits up while I'm holding her sweetly on my chest.  She spits up while I'm holding her upright in my lap.  She spits up at any given moment.  I can literally not change clothes every time the baby decides to taste her milk for a second time.  I'd have no clothes.  Clean clothes, to me, have become clothes that are not, well, noticeably stained in baby spit up. 

Cheering on the Gas - Never in a million years did I think I'd ever cheer over gas.  But I do.  Daily.  My poor baby has severe gas that causes her to roll up in a ball, turn red, and grunt in pain.  It kills me to see this.  So every time this happens, I push on her legs and cheer her on.  "You can do it!  Push it out!" I say in a soothing yet supportive voice.  Then, when she does finally get some release, I smile and proclaim, "Good girl!  You did it!".  I literally am a cheerleader for passing gas. 

Whirlwind - I have always admired my mom's ability to clean an entire house, balance a checkbook, cook a meal, and wash 4 loads of laundry...in 30 minutes.  I am in awe sometimes watching her work.  But I'm starting to figure out how she got that way.  When Emerson finishes nursing, I know that I have about 2 hours before she'll want me again.  So I turn into a whirlwind.  I immediately prioritize everything I want done and then move quickly to do as many as possible in a short amount of time.  Shower, check.  Makeup? That can wait.  Laundry first.  Coffee?  Definitely.  Drying my hair?  Nah.  It can air dry.  Get dressed?  Oh yeah, that might be necessary. Dust. Take out the trash.  Oh wait, eat.  Go, go, go!  If this continues, I may get to the point where I can finish half of what my mom can do ... in twice the time!

Of course, there are other changes.  I magically survive off of very little sleep.  I rarely get to hug my husband.  It is a challenge to go to Wal-Mart or McDonald's.  I have one priority and that is my baby.  But those are changes you expect.  The others have taken me totally by surprise.