Yesterday, a friend and I were talking about social media... We talked about how now a days, it's so easy to either purposefully or accidentally misrepresent ones life through photos being posted. By selecting the most glam or awesome experiences and pictures to share it's easy to represent a life that looks like everything is golden and our lives are a dream. I should probably mention I notice this happening less amongst "older" generations since a great deal of them seem to actually use social media to reconnect with friends and family and less to just share share share their lives. The conversation started becuase I was explaining to her that I like to post random things in an attempt to start conversations/communication with friends and family. However, the selection of my interests such as foods, city views, more food, and Justin news, could easily misrepresent what my day to day life is and quite often, don't end up in any conversations because people's true interest is to connect with me at a personal level. It's kind of the same thing with the blog. I like writing about random things and it's not always easy to share about something that's not "happy" or "fun" especially since most of my audience is so far away. It happens often when something frustrating is going on and I sit and write it out thinking, yes I'll vent, I'll share this. But then, when it's time to share, I think to myself, who'd want to read a rant/vent? What's the point? Then the post just sits there and never makes it out into the world and just like that my life is misrepresented. And I don't want that, because I'm a pretty sure if we were to meet up for coffee I'd be telling it all the good, the bad, the pretty and the ugly without hesitation. Anyway, mi goal is tweek the themese of my blogs a bit to improve my communication with fam and friends. Maybe touch more on the day to day adventures we're about to experience as parents as opposed to the food I eat or the coffee I thought was yummy. Hopefully in tweaking my topics a bit I can be more connected and have friends and family be a bigger part of our lives even at a distance.

One of the things we'd like to teach baby Morrow is that life is not always a breeeze. Teach her that you don't just get what you want without hard work and sacrifices. Sometimes in order to get that one thing you need to put in twice as much (effort). One of my goals is to continue writing when she arrives, but I want to have a more open and honest communication. Because I can't go on talking about how people misrepresent their lives on media and then. although I don't do it on purpose, I end up in the same boat. Anyway, here is my attempt at sharing with you something a bit more personal. 

 In the past week I realized that there are a few "sacrifices" a woman has to make during pregnancy that no one ever talks about. I suppose they're more personal experiences since not all women might feel this way. For someone with my personality, my life style, my opinions, this is what one could feel. Please don't read this in a negative point! In fact, I want to clarify that I think regardless of these feelings I definitely think this experience will be worth it. Just by thinking of how exciting it'll be to have her with us, these two "sacrifices" are minor nuances. So without further delay, I'd say emotionally and mentally there are the two hardest things I had to sacrifice:

As a women and individual...you cease to exist - as soon as that bump pops out everyone forgets that you were once an individual and not always two people. People write and call to see how you're doing, how's the baby, what your plans are, what name you're picking, how the nursery is coming along, if the baby is moving, if you bought clothes and so forth. It's exciting at first, especially since obviously the baby is a huge part of what's going on in our lives. But growing a baby is a slow process. 9 months of development, growth, changes. 9 months in which I, as an individual, my opinions, my feelings, my intellect, still exist. I'm still present in this world, reading the news, keeping up with other things not baby related, still interested in sports, economics. Still having professional goals and doing things that have nothing to do with the baby that are experiences and stories I'd like to share. I am still here. My personal world, me as an individual, have not ceased to exist. For someone like me it's hard to become irrelevant behind a belly. Becuase yes, although my world will be changing for ever, I'm still conscience, aware, and involved in what's going on in the rest of the world. I am aware that the world won't stop spinning and life won't stop moving forward because my  life is changing and I actively look forward to being part of this change and moving world. I keep reading the news, I still have opinions, I still search for adventures and explore. I am still growing as a person (and not just physically). 

Thanks but I'll figure it out when the time comes - I really do appreciate people wanting to help. I love getting advice, tips, hearing anecdotes...as long as they're not imposing. The problem I've come across is that people don't just tell you their stories and tips as a such. Instead they do it in a way that ends up sounding imposing or like they're trying to scare you into being prepared for whatever parenthood might bring. Hey, you should practice how to put on a diaper, store things a certain way, do this or that in order to avoid inconveniences, but do it now, do so and so now because you'll never ever have time for antyhing again, not even to go to the bathroom. Have you thought how you're going to handle dinners and feeding? What about bathroom cleaning? What about laundry? I'm telling you there will be no time. Well I'm telling you it's crazy that, that's what you're choosing to tell me. I don't get it, are you trying to help or scare? I understand it won't be easy and that theres a lot I can prepare for beforehand. But, I also understand that no matter how much I plan and prep chances are things won't go as planned because babies are unpredictable and if there's something that we are experts at, is dealing with the uncertainty, change, and unpredictability. I know some moms have to do everything on their own and so I get why you're trying to warn me. But put yourself on my side before trying to scare me or ask me how I feel about these things before you rant on about how scary and hard it'll be.  Maybe I'm just lucky, I have a husband who gets home on average around 2:#0pm. A husband who loves cooking, who does his own laundry and ironing, and who's read more parenting books than I have. He was the first to youtube a video on how to change a diaper and how to clean/handle a new born. So yes, maybe I am or we are understimating how much work it'll be, but I have faith that we can handle it without spending the last nine months we have as two stressing and worrying about things that may or may not happen. In the end I'm feeling pretty stress free and I'd rather handle things as they come. So pleaseeeee stop trying to scare me!

Ok, so this blog has gotten long. In the end, I just wanna say that for us the most exciting part of this adventure will start when the baby arrives. Whether it's in a couple days or a couple weeks, we continue to wait for her anxiously and with a home full of love.

PS. I procrastinated putting the hospital bag together for 3 weeks :) but it is now 90% done!