How is it possible I'm already at 200?

In 298 days I have posted 200 times. That works out to be 2/3 a post a day. Wow, either I'm terribly interesting and have lots going on in my life or I just like writing about things. Yeah. Just like writing about things.

Unlike other posters I never bragged when I hit my 100th post. OK. I'll be honest. I would totally have tooted my own horn but I forgot. So that means #200 is twice as important. And wow, things have changed!

In honor of my 200th post I would like to share the things that have changed since I started blogging:

I am no longer pregnant. Thank goodness! Now, don't get me wrong; I didn't mind being pregnant. In fact, I had a very easy pregnancy. My biggest problem was getting up 5 or 6 times a night to pee. But I was more than ready to be done around week 32. So the last 8 weeks were very, very long. Plus the anticipation of meeting Cameron was just killing me!

I am now a mother. While I spent a lot of time being pregnant and thinking about Cameron, I didn't spend as much time thinking about actually being a mother. And now that I am one, I can't imagine not having the essence of "motherhood" in my life. Bear in mind that this is coming from a woman who didn't have much in the way of maternal instincts! Until Cameron I never understood what it mean to "fall in love" with your child. There are times that I look at her and I swear my heart breaks (in a good way!). I want nothing more than to cuddle her and protect her every minute of the day. Well, add in 8 hours of sleep...

I have become a juggler. These past few weeks mark my return to work and with it I have joined the world of parental jugglers. I feel like I am always worried about time. I want to make sure I'm putting in the face time and hours at work but I also have a much longer morning routine and want to spend as much time with Cameron as possible. I stress that people at work only see me leaving at 4:30 PM and don't see me arriving at 7:30 AM. But if I get my work done and do it well, it shouldn't matter, right? Then why do I feel so guilty? Gah!

Charlie has moved down in the pecking order. Don't feel too bad for him though; he still gets to sleep in bed with us every night. Interestingly, I think that he listens to me better now (well, with some things) because I don't have as much patience for him as I used to. So far he has shown little interest in Cameron but he does hang out with us while we are putting her to bed and seems to recognize her name. He also enjoys licking her after we get home from daycare. Cameron ignores him too so I guess we'll have to wait a while until they are best friends.

DH and I are now parents. Let's face it, before Cameron came along we had it pretty easy. Our biggest decisions involved home improvement projects and our biggest fight was over how to correctly cut crown modeling. Now we need to be a tight team and have open communication about what we expect and need from each other as we raise our daughter. Given that we are both fairly passive aggressive this is harder than I thought it would be! But I know our marriage is growing stronger as a result.

I'm even closer with my sisters. It is probably not surprising that all three of us have children under the age of 1. Bound to happen with triplets, right? A. was the first to experience motherhood with Finn. And while I love my nephew and even managed to arrive a few hours after he was born, I never really understood what she was going through. Ditto for Mommy, Esq. although I was pregnant at the time so I felt more connected. Now Finn has been joined (in birth order) by Ned, Penny, Cameron and Lucy. And my parents have gone from one grandchild to 5 in less than a year. The best part about all these babies is that I received lots of great advice (and clothing!) and have had two resources for every little question. A. and Mommy, Esq. listened patiently as I nattered on about every detail of Cameron's schedule on basically a daily basis. And I am more than happy to return the favor!

One thing is for sure, life has certainly changed a lot since I started writing this blog. I hope you have enjoyed my posts and I look forward to sharing more!