What Mommies Do:

In the beginning we...

are not ashamed to be seen, wearing the same sweat pants as the day before and still not wearing any make-up; can go a few days without washing our hair; live our days in two hour increments driven by our baby's feeding schedule; never know what day of the week it is and FORGET IT if you think we will know the actual date; recognize that it takes us at least 2 full hours to leave the house; feel rested if we get three consecutive hours of sleep; begin a crazy addiction to lysol spray and hand-sanitizer; start keeping anything and everything as a keepsake; truly understand the meaning of unconditional love; can go a full day without eating and not even realizing it until we're too exhausted to make anything; become oblivious to the fact that every inch of our living room is covered with baby clothes, bibs, burp rags, blankets, books, toys and in my case, the best-item-ever-invented...the bouncer; wonder if our life will ever go back to what we thought was "normal"!

Later, we...

become even more aware of our new obsession to GERMS!; learn to relax when we hear our baby make any noise and can actually hold ourselves back from running to discover that nothing is wrong; realize that Grandparents only know how to spoil their grandchildren; have an even greater understanding of unconditional love; are comfortably able to remove the blanket that has been covering the carseat while out in public; trust that our parents do know what they are talking about and listen to their advice instead of trying to do it "our newly-invented way"; are reminded of what it's like to get eight consecutive hours of sleep; start to get our old body back and can fit into our pre-pregnancy clothes again...hallelujah; can't remember what life was like before baby and start creating a new "normal"!

Nearly one year later, we...

can't remember the last time we left the house without a diaper bag, high-chair cover, puffy stars, and toys...lots of them; have a solid routine again; don't think twice about singing and dancing in the aisles at Wal-Mart; order things off the menu that we don't normally get all because we want to be able to share with our baby; can't carry on a conversation without talking about our family at least once; understand that time spent with our baby is invaluable; appreciate sleeping in until 7am; honestly feel that sleeping until 7am is actually sleeping in; "normal" to us is being called "ma-ma" and wearing all the many hats that a "ma-ma" wears!