Week 11 - My, How Times Have Changed

We have come to realize that you can never prepare yourself for how becoming a parent changes your life. You know things are going to be different - your priorities, your social life, your sleeping pattern...but you until you are actually doing it, I don't think you can fully understand what it is going to be like.

BE, (Before Ellie) we were incredibly social creatures. Every single weekend we jam-packed all sorts of events: happy hours, weddings, baby showers, parties, movies, dinner with friends, family gatherings - we were always, always on the go. We planned things for every hour of the weekend, often traveling to Maryland, New York..even California. You needed an hour by hour calendar, a stop watch and a map to figure out our complex schedule.

Boy, have things changed! Last Friday, Marty said "what are we going to do this weekend?" Our calendar (as it has been for the last 11 weeks) was again completely empty. After some brief discussion about a trip to the grocery store and maybe a walk around the block, we realized that we were going to do the same thing we do every night - care for our baby and go no where.

It's not as though we expected to be party hopping with our infant as though everything was the same as it was BE, but I don't think we realized the total crippling effect it would have on our social life. There is only so far you can venture out with a baby that needs to eat every three hours and hates the car. On second thought though, perhaps it is a good thing that we don't go out as much. As an example of another thing that has changed about our life AE (After Ellie), our conversations these days largely revolve around number of hours that the baby slept, the color/amount of poop that she produced and dissecting what I ate in the last 2-6 hours that could have given her such horrible gas. Not exactly awesome cocktail conversation.

Yesterday, a rainy miserable day, I stopped at a traffic light on my way to Grandmom and Grandpa's (Marty's parents) house with Ellie when we were rear-ended. (As you may or may not know, this is the FIFTH time that someone has crashed into this car since we got it in February 2005 - I am beginning to think this car is cursed. Or that Pennsylvania drivers really suck. Or that we should recommend that the US government use Honda Accords instead of Hummers in Iraq). My first thought was not "I can't BELIEVE someone just hit this car again” it was “If my baby is hurt, I am going to strangle that man to death on the side of the road and delight in watching cars and pedestrians run over his cold dead body over and over again.” Extreme? I think not! Luckily, there was no damage to my baby (or my car) so there was no need for murder, but the idea of someone hurting our little innocent baby seriously shook me up.

So, anyway this weekend (unlike all of the other weekends since Ellie was born) our little family is venturing out into the world! Yes, we are headed to the Jersey Shore - I never said we were venturing out to someplace exciting or clean – for the weekend. (Marty would like to protest that last statement… especially the exciting part.) We would like to thank our friend Laura for inviting us (she doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into) to hang out with her at her beach house. We could not be more excited about our first real trip. We will let you know how it goes!

One last thing…on Wednesday night Ellie performed a minor miracle (Extreme? I think not!). Our little angel slept for NINE hours straight. And she could have possibly slept longer had I not leapt out of bed at 7:30am to make sure that she was still breathing, but we think that nine hours is pretty amazing. See, these are the things that make us giddy these days. Yes, the times, they are a changin’.