When you’re pregnant, you have nine months to prepare for baby’s arrival. As well as making sure you have everything you need, you’re also likely to start visualizing how different life will be once your little one arrives. However, what you don’t realize is it’s actually impossible to imagine just how much your life will change once baby is finally here.
Becoming a parent truly is a life-changing experience. While you’ll never truly be prepared for the changes to come, it is possible to gain a little more insight into what to expect. Here, you’ll discover some of the lesser talked about life changes your new baby will bring.
You’ll Discover Hidden Talents You Never Knew You Had
There’s a lot of things you need to get good at pretty quickly once you become a parent. Take stopping your baby from crying for example. When you’ve exhausted all of the standard feeding, diaper changing and burping methods, it’s time to get creative!
From making silly faces, to creating your own baby songs, you’ll be amazed by your creative skills to calm your little one down. Like many parents, you’ll start to realize you have a lot of hidden talents you never knew about before baby came along.
You’ll Never Use The Term “Pack Light” Again!
OK, so you expect to pack a few diapers before you head out with your baby, but the actual number of things you need can come as a bit of a shock. Research diaper bag essentials and you’ll soon discover you’re going to need diapers, baby wipes, a changing pad, feeding equipment, a change of clothes (for baby and possibly yourself too!), a pacifier, burp cloth and sanitizing wipes. These are just the essentials!
So, if you haven’t already got one, you’re going to want to invest in a bigger diaper bag!
Life’s Events Are Given New Meaning
Of course, not all change is bad or daunting. One good change you can look forward to is that life’s events will be given an entirely new meaning.
Christmas, birthdays and holidays are all so much more magical with a child. The memories you’ll create and being able to experience special events with your baby are truly wonderful.
The Way You Spend Your Free Time Will Change
Right now, you probably love nothing more than going out to fancy restaurants, bars and catching a movie at the theater. Surely that’s not going to change when baby arrives? The truth is, it probably will.
Even when you get some rare alone time without baby, the majority of the time you’ll be so exhausted you’d give nothing more than a take-away, home movie and a night on the sofa in your pajamas! You probably won’t even make it through the whole movie before you fall asleep. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just different and you’ll be perfectly content with your new routine.
You’ll Become More Empathetic
One of the more interesting changes which many new moms and dads experience, is they start to become more empathetic to the world around them. Those sad, tragic news stories you never gave much thought to will suddenly fill you with rage, sadness and empathy. As you drive past a car accident, you’ll be gripped by heartache and nausea as you think to yourself “that’s somebody’s child or mother or father”. Being a parent connects you to others and enables you to relate to their pain when tragedy strikes.
World issues will also become more important to you. Things like global warming and war will be given a completely new meaning now you have a child to raise and protect.
Crying Isn’t The Only Thing That Will Keep You Up At Night
If there’s one piece of advice pregnant women are given time and time again, it’s to expect to get very little sleep. However, what you don’t realize is those dreaded sleepless nights aren’t always caused by baby waking up in the night. Nope, you’ll be waking up for all kinds of reasons like you haven’t heard baby breathe through their monitor, you think they’ve been sleeping a little too long, or you’re anticipating baby waking up for a feed.
Your mind will be constantly on alert, waiting for baby to wake up. So, sleepless nights are inevitable for a new parent, but not always for the reasons you expect.
Your Social Life Will Explode
It’s common to think your social life will suffer once you’ve had a baby. Sure, it might change; particularly if you currently hang out with non-parent friends. However, you’ll quickly make a whole new group of friends! It’s like you suddenly become part of a secret parent club. Whether it’s dropping baby off at daycare, walking around the grocery store, or heading to local baby groups – your social life is going to explode in ways you never even dreamed of.
Poop Will Become A Popular Topic Of Conversation
By far one of the most common topics of conversation new parents find themselves talking about on a daily basis, is poop! From its vast array of colors, to how frequently baby poops, to the dreaded “poonami” – you won’t be able to stop talking about it. It’s fascinating, disgusting and strangely popular talk amongst new parents.
You’ll Develop An Iron Stomach
Speaking of poop and all things disgusting, you’ll quickly develop an iron stomach against things you currently can’t even think about! Vomit, spit, snot and other bodily fluids will no longer phase you. Admittedly, this isn’t going to happen overnight! That first diaper change and cleaning vomit out of your hair isn’t going to be pretty. However, after a while, as hard as it is to imagine right now, you get used to it.
Conclusion
These are just some of the ways your life will change when you have a baby. Some may sound daunting but the truth is, one little smile from baby makes all of the changes in the world seem worthwhile.
How did your life change when you had your baby? Share your experiences below!
When my wife was pregnant I asked her, “I will do everything, but do not ask me to handle poop.”My wife laughed. However, when the baby came, I no longer could avoid poop. I had to change the diaper and wipe his butt, We use cloth diapers and there are times when I can no longer avoid being in skin contact with poop. In the beginning it was a very disgusting thing to do (I was a new parent), however, soon the poop longer was smelly.
As a parent, I have also learned to keep my baby on my lap and work in the computer.
I could just imagine how disgusted you were to handle poop for the first time, hahaha. I will never forget my husband’s reaction every time he does it when our children were still young, hahaha. Keeps me laughing every time :-()
Well, as you found out, one just needs to get used to it so congratulations on a job well done! And good job on your multitasking skills – working while your baby is on your lap 🙂
First, getting married changes everything about anyone that sees it fit to tie the knot, it brings in added responsibility for the both parties thereby turning their lives around. Now, considering that in one hand, picture what it’s going to be like with the babies coming? It’s 100% certain that your life is never going to be the same ever again and it only gets better on how you try to make it be, but no amount of planning is going to make you have everything sorted out with hitches here and there.
Oh yes, marriage and having a family is a huge responsibility and one you cannot resign from when you feel like quitting. Nope, you’re in it for the rest of your life. Not unless one is an irresponsible parent who takes flight when he/she could no longer bear the responsibility. But for responsible parents, I don’t think anyone can find it in their hearts to leave his/her kids behind and just forget about them.
You can have ideas about how you want things to go but always be flexible because a family life has many surprises along the way 🙂
Exactly, it takes responsibility and courage to enter into marriage and starting up a family. The fact that some parents when things get tough tend to bolt away is the reason why it’s advised never to rush into marriage because it’s completely different from relationships. There was a case here where a man had to run away from the hospital on discovering his wife gave birth to 4 babies at once.
“When I was pregnant, I already practice my patient and it test my faith. My partner left when he found out i am pregnant, and so i do it all alone.
i got so sick during my 8 months pregnancy, my potassium went down that cause my body numb and put me to hospital bed for two weeks. the doctor told me, my baby dont respond anymore so they needed to take him out of my belly. there is a chance he might be alive inside so they could place him into incubator to help his body develop more. the moment he came out through Cesarean section was intense. i know from that moment there is a chance i might dont hear him cry but instead of worrying i prayed. he didnt cry, but he open his eyes and look at me. now he is five and just like other kids, he always makes angry look when he cant get what he want. but because our kids are worth fighting for, we always wanted to teach them the good way of asking and receiving. my patience is the most important of all, when we are tired from work, dont bring it at home. we need to show them our smile and show them how excited we are when we get home. they love tender care, tough, kisses and hugs, telling them we love them makes them grow happy and contented.
their behavior when they grow up show our parenting when their young. the good attitude of a person start with how their parents discipline and lead their ways.
Very well said, julie. I agree with the points you mentioned, especially when you said: “…our kids are worth fighting for.” Yes indeed.
And you’re also right when you said the behavior of a child is determined by how his/her parents raised him/her. No one else can influence a child’s behavior more than the parents.
In as much as I’m not a parent yet, I agree with you that becoming a parent will bring a new way of thinking and increased responsibility to things that happen around us. I could recall when I was still a kid and my uncle, who was a bachelor then, will always make joke of my dad for always playing with us till he got married.
Surprisingly, the same thing that he used to make joke of my dad was what he fell for and started playing so much with the kids which proved that people become more emotional and emphatic when they become parents.
I totally agree with what you said that: “…people become more emotional and emphatic when they become parents.” Seeing and raising one’s child creates a very loving bond between parents – even the toughest or most bad ass guy in the world would surely melt when he sees his baby. It’s a very strange thing indeed what babies can do.
It’s really strange, but I think that is all about the connection they build as they grow up with the parents taking good care of them. No how tough a human might look, there is always that human and soft side of them that having a baby or being a parent can trigger. So, it’s something normal in most people.