What Did I Do Before I Became a Mother?

Thinking back to just 17 months ago, exactly one month before I had my son it becomes apparent to me that I have nearly no recollection of how my life was before Johnathan (my son) came into my life. I have found through becoming a parent that everything really does change after you have a baby!

Waking up as a Mother is much different from waking up as a childless person. Before I became a Mother, the first thing on my mind in the morning was "I gotta' pee". Now my first thought in the morning is " I wonder if J.T. is still sleeping and what should I make him for breakfast", the next immediate thought is " I gotta pee!". Becoming a Mother has shown me how unselfish I am and how much I am willing to sacrifice for my child.

When I was younger, before I had my beautiful little man my days were usually spent at work. Most days I was wishing I could spend more time at work to get more hours, I didn't have a good reason to hate being at work other than the fact that it was work. Now, as a Mother when I am at work nearly every spare second that I'm not thinking about my job and what I'm doing is spent thinking about my son and what he's doing at this very moment. Often times I catch myself looking at my cell phone wallpaper just to catch a glimpse of the love of my life, my child.

As I begin to make dinner at night many things are going through my mind. What should I make? How much should I make? Will Johnathan eat these carrots, he dislikes carrots... we will have broccoli with cheese, maybe I can trick him into eating his veggie's today? This is the thought process of a Mother. This was one second of thought that happens thousands of times a day. I have noticed that every thought I have in some way shape or form is correlated with my baby boy. Dinner time as a single person was much different, usually it was in my car on my way to a friends house or at a restaurant sharing drinks with friends, with only one care, me.

In general I ask myself "what did I do before I became a Mother?".I find myself vaguely remembering something along the lines of "spare time", and ask myself what it used to consist of? Was I in a vegetative state? Did I have a 5000 piece puzzle strewn across my coffee table? I find it hard to believe that there was actually a time that I wasn't changing 5 and 6 diapers a day. I am having an even harder time trying to figure out what activities I used to partake in that has now evolved into diapering, bathing, feeding, entertaining, educating, working, cooking and about a thousand other jobs I have acquired in the mean time since becoming a Mom.

More so than the vast difference in time and activities, now I find that my entire thought process has changed. For example during the pre-motherhood days when I saw a penny on the floor the first thing that used to come to mind was "see a penny pick it up and all day long you'll have good luck!". Now I see a penny one the floor and think "I better pick that up before I find it in JT's diaper". Not even my thoughts were safe from this motherhood evolution that I quickly went through.

While I don't really recall what it is I used to do before I became a Mother, I do know that whatever it was, I wouldn't want to trade it for all the dirty diapers, public temper tantrums or scary boo boos that I will have to endure in the future of my Motherhood years to come!