i didn't realize

When I first became a mom I didn't realize ...

• That I wouldn't mind changing dirty diapers all day long.
• How many hours would be spent obsessing over one subject: sleep.
• How judgemental and competitive people really can be.
• Who would become my support system and important to me.
• Trusting my instincts will get me everywhere.
• That people I care about would make me feel bad (not always intentionally) for the mother I am becoming and choosing to be.
• How much hormones can really mess with your mind.
• That I would quickly develop a love/hate relationship with breastfeeding.
• How much I would regret not getting our financial situation under better control first.
• Why they use sleep deprivation and crying babies as a military training tactic.
• That I didn't really need any baby shoes until the baby can actually walk.
• That zipper sleepers are the very best things ever.
• How much energy I would get from an early morning smile.
• How different every baby, family and mother are.
• Why everyone told me to stop reading parenting books and websites.
• That a little bit of crying is okay.
• How young a baby can be before he/she starts manipulating mommy and daddy.
• What it truly feels like to feel helpless.
• How bad my anxiety could actually get.
• That I would fall in love with my husband all over again.
• That my baby girl would wear pink almost every day of her little life so far.
• How long it would take me to feel comfortable in my role as mom.
• That some days you don't want to but now you have to.
• How even a diaper rash can break a parent's heart.
• What a great father my husband would become.
• That a baby changes everything. Truly.
• Just how much hair I was going to lose after the baby was born.
• How a month can feel like a year and a minute at the same time.
• How much stuff is accumulated for such a little person.
• The awesomeness of Netflix.
• The power of strangers. New moms connect in such an amazing way.
• That I had the capacity to love like this.