I remember the day each came into my life. The joy, the fear, and the major learning curve for each. Autumn often tempted my patience and Sienna had many health issues in her first months of life. Each taught me that life is precious and to enjoy each and every minute because they grow up so fast.

I recently watched a video when Autumn was about 2 and Sienna was only a few months old. I cannot believe how much they have changed in a short two years. It made me recently pull out the video camera again so I will be able to look back in another two years and reminisce.

I am now about to have my third ‘bundle’ of joy in a matter of days and I think back on the years that I have had so far with Autumn and Sienna and how this new addition will impact our family.

I am sure that many reading this blog article can relate if you have had more than one child. The excitement, the fear, the juggling that ensues, the expansion of love for yet another and showing to your new oldest that the newest addition won’t change how you love him or her.

I can only wonder, though, if the same person reading this blog can relate when they realize that my girls, Autumn and Sienna, are tiny red-haired toy poodles. Yes…poodles.

For those of you that have animals, you most likely can empathize with the fact that your animal has been your ‘baby’. But I don’t just mean the center of your world. I mean that they have been your ‘child’. You take them to doctor’s appointments, worry about the infected eye, fret that they are not getting enough exercise, feel guilty when you have to work and cannot spend as much time with them as you would like, trying to make sure they eat enough (or don’t each too much), take them to grandmas, the petsitter or the dreaded doctor’s visit for a shot.

For those of us that have pets, they often, in many and unknown ways, prepare us for the real ‘babies’ that may join our lives. As my husband and I set up the pack-and-play, make room for the baby bottles and baby toys, I am cognizant of this fact. The past four years since I got my first dog, I have had to clean up vomit, diarrhea, rush to the hospital in the middle of the night, call into work and feel guilty about it because I have to bring one of them to the doctor, or feel guilty when I have to work late nights for a week in a row and only can pat them on the head (and fill their food and water bowl) before running out the door. I have even had to deal with doggy “bullies” at the local dog park.

I know that these will be similar events for the baby I am about to deliver into this world (minus the water bowl and head patting). I cannot help, but see those similarities.

Many people say interesting things to an expectant mom. Phrases such as “Wait till you get spit up all over your suit while running to work”, or “Wait till that first Diaper blowout”, or “Wait till they get sick and you wonder if you should take them to day-care or miss a meeting”. What they don’t know is that I have already experienced those things. While it will be different with my actual child, having my two dogs has made me aware and ready for these challenges. (Dog diarrhea is no walk in the park you know). As well as the triumphs.

One scene in the video of Autumn and Sienna is when Sienna went up a flight of stairs all by herself. You can hear the excitement of my voice in the background and my cheering when she accomplished this first in her life. I look forward to seeing my son or daughter accomplish their firsts. Capturing the moment on video with my voice, in the background, urging him or her on, and I know that Autumn and Sienna will be there, in the same video shot, somehow encouraging him or her too.

When we come home from the doctor’s office after having a immunization shot, I know that Autumn and Sienna will provide a well placed ‘kiss’ to let their younger brother or sister know that they understand.

For those that have animals, I know you understand too.

It will be a blast.

With just days to go before this ‘life altering’ event befalls me, I would like to politely disagree and state that it is the act of becoming pregnant that actually changes your life. (What do you mean I can’t eat deli meat?)

More specifically though, it is the choices made during your pregnancy that will change the day-to-day details of your life after the baby even is born.

I am not talking about the health choices that immediately come to mind (no wine, no caffeine, no tuna), nor the career related choices (part-time vs. full time or working mom vs. stay at home mom). I am talking about the changes that you don’t even think of (and your friends don’t mention) when you find yourself ‘expecting’. It is the changes to your personal ‘network’.

Having worked in Boston for the past 15 years, I have a network. A well established, finely honed, keenly tuned network based on 15 years of trial and error, sweat and tears; it is a network that is a part of my arsenal, my well-being, my pre-Mommy history. Otherwise known as my doctor, dentist, chiropractor, eye doctor, gym, hairdresser, manicurist, dog groomer….you get the picture.

For those that have straight hair, maybe changing your hairdresser is not a big deal, but when you have unruly, curly (mostly frizzy) hair like me, it is a possible tragedy in the making. I know that the sleepless newborn baby nights will be hard. But can’t I have nice hair?

I have poodles (who also have unruly, curly hair – go figure) and are very small, so it is important to get a great dog groomer who understands tiny curly-haired poodles. Finding a new pedicurist who does not judge my runners feet is a feat (get it?). One cannot begin to comprehend my horror of baring my feet to a….stranger!

I can only compare this change to the act of moving. Where you find yourself surrounded by new people (mommy-morning out people vs. Board meeting people) and a new location (home vs. an office building). Instead of asking your new neighbor, you ask your new mommy-founded friends how to deal with the diaper blowouts and who they recommend as a dentist…for you.

I know that I currently have a unrealistic expectation that I will somehow be able to keep my network intact. Perhaps driving many extra miles for that one eye doctor appointment. I am sure it is somehow related to that psychological need to think one can do it all, have it all, and nothing will change after the baby is born. But I also know that the attempts (and the delusion of grandeur) will be short lived when I find that the extra driving miles with a baby in the car seat (probably projectile vomiting) is not the best use of our time.

So I will find myself pulling away from those that knew me (albeit, only every 8 weeks or once a year), but I will feel disloyal and out of place in the new waiting room, frustrated when I will have to learn the new ‘best’ parking spot, or lost when I don’t know the best time to get the good treadmill.

All in all, finding yourself on the verge of Motherhood brings the knowledge that you have to give up, say diet soda, and the impromtu nights out with your partner or friends, but little do you know that you probably will have to give up your waxer as well.

So at the cusp of my life-altering experience, I am looking at the reviews for eye doctors in my area and already booked an appointment at a new veterinarian office for my poodles. I know it is the first step of many to come in my new role as Mom, but it puts me in a better position to understand what my son or daughter may go through on the first day of kindergarten in about five years. Hopefully, by then, he or she will have nice hair (and so will I).