trade-off

I read a blog the other day that really stuck with me. (Tried to find it but can't) I love (and hate) that I still have so much to learn with my 4th on the way. The writer was talking about all the things we don't have time for with little ones... basic things like eating, showering, going to the bathroom and sleeping. 

Eating breakfast becomes a bite here and there while running around packing lunches, feeding dogs and getting the baby a bottle. Showering is a hurried, stressful time wondering what the girls are getting into with the baby banging on the glass and fussing because she wants to be in there with me. Bathroom time is always the best time to ask Mommy questions and tell her your big problems like a missing shoe or the new scratch on your arm, probably because she's cornered and has to listen. And again, the baby is banging on the door because she wants in. Sleep is never more than a few hours at a time and is more interrupted the more kids (and dogs) you have.

The blogger kept saying we'll have our turn later. We can eat later, we can sleep later, we'll have time to put on make-up later. There will come a time in our lives when we will have time to ourselves to take care of the basics we always took for granted before we had kids. 

What we won't have, however, are those moments with the little ones that seem like an eternity when you're in them, then they fly by and you're left wondering where the time went. She was saying basically, it's a trade-off. We are trading in our sleep, leisurely meals and uninterrupted potty breaks for sticky kisses, belly laughs, tiny hands, hundreds of I love you Mommys and memories with those little people that become our world from the moment we see that positive pregnancy test. I've tried really hard to have both and you just can't. Eventually you realize that it is futile and stop trying. Why have I never thought of it that way? I gave those things up when I became a mommy. I traded them in. 

Now is the time to enjoy my little ones and devote every last bit of my time and energy to them because it takes everything I have to meet their needs and love them the way they need to be loved.

This is something that helps me keep a better attitude when I'm annoyed that I can never have more than a sip of hot coffee or a piece of toast that isn't hard from sitting in the toaster for 20 minutes while I tend to everyone else's needs. It's a trade-off and it's worth it. If it wasn't, we would have stopped at Mya ;)

And every once in a while if I'm not too tired, I do get to take a shower in peace...at night after everyone is asleep ;)