Once a writer, always a writer

I can't tell you how happy I am that I've kept this blog for the past year. Many of you know that I've kept another blog (that I still use for general updates and random thoughts for family and friends) for almost four years now, but I knew that when I had a baby, I didn't want that blog to be overtaken with baby stuff. I give periodic Baby B updates and post a ton of her pictures since so many of our family and friends live far away, but I still make it a point to try to post about non-baby stuff there, despite that being what consumes 98% of my daily routine. But this blog is my place where I can be a little more candid about baby things, since not everyone I know has access to this one.

I still haven't gone back and read this blog from start to finish, though I would like to at some point. Part of me wants to go back and see if I can detect any excitement (or just nervousness) when I found out I was pregnant. I want to see if I can tell from my writing how I was feeling when I had my morning sickness...did I make it out to be worse than it really was, or was I actually conservative in my assessment of it? Time has given me a different perspective, and I'd like to compare my current view of such things with my view at the time...which I can do because of the fact that I've kept this blog.

In addition, I'm so glad to have so many details of my pregnancy and first few months of being a mother on record, as I find I'm forgetting a lot of those things that I swore I'd never forget. It makes me a little sad, but it's hard for me to remember what it felt like to get a baby kick, yet hopefully I captured a bit of what it was like in my writing.

Ever since about 6th grade, I've wanted to be a writer, as writing has been a great outlet for me. Even though my career path veered away from writing and toward editing, I've still enjoyed writing in my personal life; before blogs, I regularly kept diaries and have e-mailed friends in such great detail that it might as well be a diary. Writing forces me to face an issue, and it often helps give me an idea of whether I'm making a bigger deal about something than I should be; something about putting things in writing makes it seem more real, so you gain that perspective. The availability of blogs has made doing this writing even better, as it takes it to the next level and allows you to get the feedback that you often need. When I return to work, my blog posts will probably have to be shorter, and probably less frequent, but I still want to make time in my day to record the happenings of this new life I have. What a great gift that'll one day make for my little Baby B.