How My Life Has Changed Since Becoming a Mother

A little over nine months ago, I gave birth to my first kid. We’ll call him Baby K, or BK for short. Everyone says having kids is hard. You don’t get to do the things you used to like to do. You live your whole life for your kid. That’s pretty much true.

TL;DR You end up with baby stuff in the background of all your selfies

Before BK, I pretty much lived the life of your average gamer. On my days off from work I would stay up all night and play games. I went to conventions on weekends. I bought any game I wanted whenever I wanted. I never had to wait for Steam sales. I also read a lot of comics. I even wrote about them on this same blog. I was quite content with life.

Then I got pregnant. It wasn’t planned at all and I had a pretty rough pregnancy the whole time. Just the physical changes alone made me have to reinvent my lifestyle. Even though I still had all the freedoms of not having to care for a child, my body basically kept me from doing everything. You would think someone would still be able to play games, read comics, and go to conventions while pregnant. For me, however, I was in constant pain and discomfort. Sitting at a desk playing PC games was out of the question. For several months, I would just sit up in bed and play World of Warcraft on my laptop, because that was the only game that really ran on my laptop and the only thing I really felt like doing. I even levelled a character from 1-100 before I gave birth.

After having BK was no picnic. I still didn’t have my physical health back for quite some time due to birthing complications. Plus, the first few months after having a newborn are nonstop work. You eventually get to a point where you can get a few hours of free time a day, but by the time you establish a routine, your baby develops new abilities and needs extra supervision, or a change in nap times and feeding times.

The main thing I learned is to be flexible and to keep hobbies going no matter what. I’ve always believed that hobbies can keep a person sane. I’ve also been very lucky with BK. He’s actually been a pretty easy baby and he sleeps through the night, which is very important to my sanity.

So now I have to take bite sized chunks of the things I always liked to do, but I can’t beat myself up for not being able to do them. Getting through one comic book a day rather than a full run is really better than nothing. It sounds cliche, but when your baby starts developing a personality and becomes more interactive with you, the struggle becomes more than worth it.