I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing lately. At first it was my high school days – getting sunburned on spring break, shopping for prom dresses with my mom, meeting my husband-to-be in the hallway between the chemistry and biology classrooms. Those were good times.

It never fails, as I’m deep into a daydreaming session reliving the past I’m jolted back to reality by tiny voices asking for juice or little hands with a broken toy. Boy has my life changed. Now, I reminisce of a different era of my life. I took a trip back in time reading a few of my old columns and found the passages below. I hope you don’t mind a little repeat. It has been quite some time since you've read it.

From the moment your eye twinkles with the thought of having a child and becoming a mother your life begins to change. You worry about how fast your husband drives to how you’ll cope with 2 a.m., 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. feedings all in one night. (Yes, all in one night.)

You start to appreciate your own mother and the sacrifices she made for you. You start to understand how she could give up the things she gave up so she could be the best mom for you.

The moment you learn your expecting, your life changes. There will never again be Saturday mornings sleeping till 11 and lazily watching reruns all day. You'll never jump up and decide to take a road trip on a whim without thoughts of bottles, diapers or nap schedules.

As a parent, your nice furniture has been baptized in spit up…or worse. Your Sunday dress is stained with peas and strained carrots, making it the perfect outfit for cleaning toilets or digging your kitchen spatula out of the dirt pile in the backyard.

I say again, the moment you learn your expecting, your life changes. You give up sleeping in for snuggling little ones in Mommy and Daddy’s bed at 6 a.m. while you watch Blues Clues and eat dry Cheerios. You get to hear, “Wake up Daddy! It’s outside time!” instead of an annoying alarm clock. You trade in your long weekend trips for picnics in the park and holding your smallest miracle as the two of you slide down the big slide together.

You toss a decorative blanket over your furniture to hide the spit-up stains when company comes, knowing it really doesn’t matter. They have children too.

The toothless smiles, knee hugs and slobbery kisses tell you it's all worth it. And, while an occasional Saturday-morning sleep in is worth its weight in gold, the slumber party with the little ones the night before is priceless.

Eva Faircloth is a former newspaper editor who resides in Loxley with her husband, Lee, and two sons, Gavin and Ethan. She can be reached at eva@cyrisoft.com.