No one warns you

 No one warns you about how much your relationship with your pets can change after you have a baby.

Like, I still love my dog. He was my first baby. He got me through so many lonely nights and hard moments. But now? Now I find myself getting irritated when he barks during nap time. When he follows me room to room like a shadow. When he begs for attention at the exact moment I finally sit down after rocking a baby for an hour.

It’s like my patience did a full reset the day I gave birth and suddenly the things I used to find cute or funny feel overwhelming.

Motherhood stretched me in every possible way. Emotionally. Mentally. Physically. And I just don’t have the same space I used to for being a “pet person.”

And honestly? That doesn’t make me a bad person.
It makes me human.
It means my priorities shifted.

I’ll always care for him. But I know now I won’t get another dog. And that’s okay.
Because I’m in a season where I’m giving all I’ve got to the little human I brought into this world. And that love? It changes everything.