Ch-ch-changes
“Your life will change forever!” This is the sentence most people typed to me (people already with children) in various e-mail exchanges when they heard we were having a baby. It’s a pretty dramatic claim. Change forever. Change? How? Like a guy who gets super human powers? Like an accident? Like the diapers we must change every couple hours? When you make a claim like change, you better back it up. So let’s do some inventory.
What does change?
- We (or I) read less. I could polish a good book every couple days before the baby. That speed has slowed to a book I still haven’t finished in a week. Having a baby, it turns out, is a very anti-literacy thing to do. I did, however, read a graphic novel the other day. A sad story: Exit Wounds.
- Rituals. I used to have some pretty good rituals. Wake up at six a.m. Have coffee. Read five horoscopes. Go to gym half hour drive away. Now I get up at six still, but my wife has been up four times already. The rest stays the same.The gym, however, is only two minutes drive away.
- Writing. I like to write. I have so many blogs, I’ve forgotten about some (sorry, Digital Detroit. I’ll be with you shortly). Except for two article revisions and some reader reports for journals, I haven’t written much lately. This is a change I don’t mind as much. I feel good about my output to date. Still, I would like to work more on the Detroit book. And I’ve promised an article to a collection….And I have another collection in the works….So writing is still ok.
- Movies. We haven’t been to one yet. Then again, in the year before Vered, I think we went to three. Two were during the pregnancy!
- My other important ritual: Watch Around the Horn at five, Pardon the Interruption at five thirty. This is a change that has nothing to do with the baby. First, we are on Central time now, and all of my TV habits are messed up. Second, I think the shows are on hiatus right now. Every time I tune in, there’s golf or baseball. Can’t blame the baby for this change.
- Enjoyment. Ah. Here is the change. Enjoying this little human every day of our lives. Even when she poops, you change her, and she poops again.
As I look at your list, I think about how each new human that entered our family changed the way we did things. The first one was a big change but the other siblings that followed brought about changes that were just as dramatic. Change is a now a natural part of the evolution of your expanded family. Oh, poopy diapers aren’t bad, it’s the 4:00AM puke that I’ve not been able to adjust to even after 7 children
Comment by Kelly Christopherson — July 30, 2007 @ 1:01 am
your penultimate item about television watching and the new central time zone wrinkle also suggests that maybe the move has compounded the changes. when i moved (to pittsburgh) it took a lot of time and mental energy that would otherwise be put elsehwere just to adjust to a new place and find new routines. this of course is not to refute anything you’ve observed about vered, just to notice that the changes are probably even more extreme!
good luck with it all.
Comment by dhawhee — July 30, 2007 @ 11:43 am
Change is good even when we have to adjust our TV watching. Our routines get shifted and we need to invent new routines. “Wait, it’s 7:30! 30 Rock is on!” 7:30 to watch a TV show? Oh no.
Comment by jrice — July 30, 2007 @ 11:52 am
It always comes back to the poop for you, doesn’t it, Dr. Fabulous?!
Comment by K — July 31, 2007 @ 10:44 am
Having a baby, it turns out, is a very anti-literacy thing to do.
Try getting through you QE list with four kids in tow!!
And just wait until Vered gets hooked on TV, like Dora the Explorer or Barney. Try reading, or even just having an intelegent thought, with “I love you, you love me…” playing over and over again in your head.
Comment by Mary — July 31, 2007 @ 2:20 pm