The pace of life

Having a baby is a little like training to be a Zen master.  First of all, everything that you thought was vitally important (like impressing your boss, keeping a clean house, wearing clothes without spit-up on them) suddenly become inconsequential.  You realize that the most important thing in life is this little person in front of you and keeping her happy.

Second: Breastfeeding.  There is not a lot that you can do while breastfeeding.  You can look at the baby.  You can not look at the baby.  The former activity is a lot more fun.  The point is, that all those lists of things that you need to do, have to wait. You are forced to just sit and be present in the moment.

Third: Everything takes longer.  If Ilya has a meltdown in the car seat (a very common occurrence), we pull over and take care of her – making the trip take three or four times as long as it did BB (Before Baby).  Adam and I decided to put a patio in our yard so that we could have BBQ’s outside and a place to sit (right now, it is a lawn of wood chips and plants).  Ilya decided to help by sitting in her chair and laughing at us as we toiled away.  Of course, she needed to be changed and fed about 6 times during the course of our labor- which meant that poor Adam did most of the toiling alone.  I am proud to say that we have a roped off section for our patio and several holes in the ground.  I have to keep reminding myself that the tortoise won the race in the end.