Doing For You

(Yay Guest Posts!!! This comes from a dear friend from college, who is experiencing this fun right alongside of me as her son is only a few weeks younger than Jacob... Thanks for the guest post Steph!!!!!)

It is amazing how quickly and completely your life changes once your little one arrives. Your life becomes about someone other than yourself. You spend your days meeting the physical and emotional needs of someone who cannot help themselves. Your daily goals are showering and brushing your teeth before lunch. Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I also realized that it is important to remember myself.

This realization came about two months after Bryan was born as I was talking with a co-worker who asked the normal new baby questions-how is he sleeping, eating etc. Then she asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks, “What are you doing for yourself?” My first instinct was to reply, “Oh lots of stuff”, but then that wasn’t true. My brain went into panic mode trying to come up with something that I was doing for myself. Showering every day? Taking naps? Those didn’t count, they are just a part of daily survival. Surely there was something that I was doing for just me…wasn’t there?

Later that night, haunted by this question I took a good look at my life and realized that since my little one arrived my life had become about him and those “something for me” moments had faded into oblivion. It was after this realization that I decided to take action. I was going to do something for me, but what? Every time I came up with an idea, I came up with an excuse for why it wasn’t going to work. Too much money…not enough time…I’d rather sleep…

After some encouragement (and a giant nudge from my loving husband) I finally decided that I was going to start a sewing project. So I went to the store, bought the fabric and began work. The experience was liberating! I didn’t feel guilty or selfish like I thought I would, instead I felt re-energized. I was doing something that I wanted to do and that was just for me.

It is important to remember that just because we become mothers, doesn’t mean we have to stop doing things for ourselves. Sure, it is much harder to find the time, the energy and the motivation, but it is not impossible. It has been about a month since my epiphany and my sewing project is no closer to completion, but it is nice to know that it’s there for those times when I need a “something for me” moment.

So, I ask you, in the hopes that, unlike me, you have an answer “What are you doing for yourself?”