Last week, my baby turned 9 months old. Nine. Months. From that day onward, my girl has been outside longer than she was inside. It’s just insane. 

Time is such a funny thing. It feels as though it’s fickle, when really it’s always constant. It’s truly the only constant in our lives. But what is actually fickle is our concept of time. I can remember throughout my pregnancy, it felt as though I had been pregnant forever. It got to the point where I couldn’t really imagine a time before pre-pregnancy. Even now, it seems like my pre-pregnant, pre-baby life is a dream that I made up. One that includes free time, not always feeling tired and the ability to drink copiously if I felt like it. It was a glorious time.  Filled with pretty dresses that fit and a lot of oysters. Contrarily, at the end of my pregnancy I remember thinking, I can’t believe our girl is coming so soon. It was like time had flown by. The exact opposite as I felt while I was in the midst of it. What’s that all about?

And now, post pregnancy and in my babyful life, I’m experiencing the exact same thing except it’s going by even faster. Faster, but slower. Do you get me? No? Ok, let me break it down for you:

The days can be sooooooooooooo soooooooooooo sooooooooooooo long. Some days you’ll look at the clock at 8:30am and think you’ve lived an entire day already. And in many ways you have. You’ve nursed 1 billion times, you’ve changed two poopie diapers, you’ve given solids, you’ve been in the jumper, you’ve been in the backyard, you’ve gone for a walk. And, it’s 8:30am. 8:30. Pre-baby you would have been lucky to have gotten out of bed by 8:30.

By the time your partner gets home (for me it’s 12 hours after he left) it feels like you’ve been on your own for a solid month, not half the day, but a month. It’s hard entertaining a child for 12 hours on your own. You gotta get creative. 

But then, next thing you know hundreds of long days have past and you realize that several months have past and your time with your baby is coming to an end. It’s nearly time to go back to work, and your baby is nearly a toddler. It’s absolutely crazy. 

Where did the time go? Where did the days, weeks, and now months, go? Next thing you know, I’m going to have a teenager and will it feel as though I blinked. And that’s f-ing scary. Hopefully since I’m actually aware of this, and not just because people always talk about it, but because I’m actually experiencing it, maybe I’ll be smart enough to soak it all in. The good and the bad. This life.

This babyful life.

Whatever it may bring, I’m going to embrace it and experience it, while being aware of how precious each moment is.