BEING A MOM

Inês Lopes

Motherhood.
Oh what a lovely experience. Such a miracle and all that jazz. Ahem, but wait. The smell of scrambled eggs is now making you barf and all of the sudden you love cheese. What the heck!? Ha! And you're also sobbing at every glimpse of a happy moment? Oh yes, welcome to my world.
Even though becoming a mom came naturally to me, I have to admit that a lot of things surprised me in a very strange way. I will skip the gory details for another time *wink*. In the meantime here are just a few things that changed for me, as day to night, after becoming a mother. Now, I know that I am no expert at it, but honestly I don't think anyone is.
First things first, you will forget about yourself every so often. You'll become just a body with a non-stopping mind. That's not in a negative way. Though you will sometimes find the need to spoil yourself, most of the times you won't even remember that you're there. If that's making any sense to you at all.
You phone's gallery will be overflowing with pics and videos of your baby. Don't even try to run away from it, just embrace it. If back in the days you didn't even had to free the space in your phone's gallery, now you'll find yourself moving all the pics into your computer every so often.
"Worse" than that is being caught scrolling through your pics a thousand times per day only to see that pretty little face again and again. Should I also mention the struggle of balancing between talking about your baby to your friends whilst trying your best not to be obnoxious?
Ha! One thing, you will find yourself fighting to remember everyone around is that you are still you and have more interests rather then talking about diapers, poo and all that fun stuff.
Expect to completely loose track of time. "What day is it today, again?" I became the worst at replying to that. I can't even remember in what year or month we are most of the times. No joke. It really is that bad!
You used to be an early bird and now if your baby doesn't wake up earlier than you, you will sleep until way too late and don't give a flying crap about it because rest has became one of the most important things in order to keep you sane.
You didn't like cheese, at all. Couldn't even stand it far away and now you find yourself craving cheese at every meal. True fact. Around the end of my second trimester I was craving lemons, apples and cheese. Eating a lemon as if it was an orange was so freaking satisfying. I lost count on how many apples per day I was devouring and if any snack came with the taste of cheese it was mine! I thought it had gone away by now, as my disgust for meat in the first trimester did, but guess what, I still love all of them in the exact same way. At least I wasn't craving for walls and tiles as I heard some women do.
Were you that type of person that wouldn't cry for months? Forget it! Now you will cry anytime you see something cute, dramatic, beautiful, sad or even happy for that matter. Just marvelous!
A notebook and a calendar will become your best friends. At least until you forget what you were just about to write in the beginning of the first word. Or worse, write it and completely forget about it for months, finding out way too late that thing you were supposed to do and didn't do. Oops.
In that same note, expect your friends to make fun of your slow brain for about half year (if not longer). Lack of sleep and hormones will make you doubt of yourself and completely loose your train of thought in a middle of a... What was I saying... Ha! In a middle of a sentence.
Social or not social, you'll find yourself having to talk to people everywhere. So forget headphones and being anti-social in that sense. Prepare for having strangers approaching you on the street just to touch and interact with your kid. I honestly do not understand that phenomenon, maybe because I never felt that need, but yes it happens quite a lot. I'm not saying it is a bad thing, it just requires some getting used to, if you ask me. It's like going out with the queen.
If you used to spend one hour preparing yourself to get outside, count with two now. I am not exaggerating here. The most difficult part will be debating between getting some extra rest and rush everything in the last 30 min before leaving, or actually take the time to look presentable together with your kid. Spoiler alert: Your kid will always look greater than you! You on the other hand will look like just got out of bed with that stained shirt to run some errands. Ain't no shame in that.
Last but not least, prepare to having to bear with everyone else's opinions about what you should and shouldn't do, forgetting that the kid you have has been surviving without any problems all this time.​​ Comments are more than welcome, mostly when asked for.
But it ain't all as bad. It may seem like I am whining but I can assure you that in the end of the day it is one of the best experiences of my life. It thought me a lot and I wouldn't change it for anything else.




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