So here's something different...

...a blog post with no pictures!

Thanks to another friend's blog, I've been thinking about how much better my life is since I've had a baby. Before you're pregnant, and even while you're pregnant, you get a lot of "just you wait till you have that baby-- see how much time you have then!" or "just wait till you have a baby-- you'll wish you got to sleep like you do now!" It used to drive me nuts. I got so sick of people telling my how awful my life was going to be once I had this baby, and how lucky I was to be working full time and pregnant instead of being strapped down to a child. Now, as a disclaimer, I know that most of those people were very loving moms, themselves, and, I'm sure, enjoy motherhood-- it's just not an easy gig.

But I wouldn't trade it for anything. Ever. Sometimes I have dreams that I've gone back in time, and that I don't have a baby, and that I'm back at work. And it's horrible. Because I think that I'm going to have to go back through everything I've already went through to get here. And working full time while pregnant was truly terrible. I don't wish that on anybody. I may be a little more restricted these days in the social activity and sleep arenas, but I can wake up (sure, maybe several times) without my entire body aching from lugging around an extra 30 lbs on my feet all day. And when the rough days do come, the extra hard work I put in is for somebody I love more than myself and not for a faceless corporation.

So to all of my Provonian peers who are working and going to school, still anticipating your child bearing years-- just know that it's wonderful. Don't listen to the people who tell you to "just wait till you have kids and can't do that anymore." Appreciate your freedom now, but don't think for a second that it's a better life than it will be once you have a family-- rough days (and nights) included.

[Disclaimer: I have the most wonderful, well behaved baby in the world and cannot speak for mothers who have babies with colic or who have their days and nights mixed up or similar, or mothers with multiple children. So, if I'm wrong there-- my bad.]

OK. Maybe just one picture...