Life as a New Mom: 26 Days and Counting

26 Days. That's all that remains until my baby blows out the candle on her first birthday cake and turns one year old. She won't be an infant anymore; she'll be a TODDLER. What do I do now?

As the unreasonably sadistic Dreft commercial above tells us: "You have a child forever, but a baby for just one year." Excuse me while I go cry off all my eye makeup. No one told me how hard this was going to be. I looked at a few mementos from Dolores' birth the other day and broke down in tears.

Why does it hurt so much? How can you miss someone so when that same person is growing and changing right before your eyes? And I do miss my tiny baby Dodo. I'm getting a lump in my throat just picturing her round newborn face and those painstakingly small preemie diapers.

But now I have a "big girl." I'm elated. She's perfect: smart, sweet, and always, always so happy.  She NEVER cries unless she's exhausted or sick. I am beyond lucky to have her. As the remaining days of her infancy fly by, I'll cherish them.

Even when she wakes up at 6 A.M. on a Saturday (as evidenced below). Even when she is in the seventh circle of teething hell and wailing like a banshee demon child and I want to pull out all my hair. When she cuddles next to me for an afternoon nap. When she wakes up and lifts those sleepy eyes towards me and says, "Ma-Ma." When she's happy. When she's fussy.

All of it. Every single moment. After all, this has been the BEST year of my life.