You cannot expect to sleep in. You cannot expect to be on time every place you go. You cannot expect it to take less than an hour to get ready to go anywhere... even if you can hope.

Fortunately you can expect certain delights too, although these change through the years. You get kisses, hugs and unconditional love early on. You're the most important person in a young life. You get to see a child you gave birth to grow up.

When you have a baby you learn to deal with the fact that it takes you much longer than you'd expect to get ready to go anywhere. Think you're running ahead of time? Trust me, the baby will poop or need to be fed or just be plain uncooperative. And believe me, a baby, even a newborn, can be plenty uncooperative even before being able to roll over.

It's also very easy to just be too tired to go anywhere in those early days. If baby don't sleep well, mama don't sleep well. If you're smart, nor does Daddy for anything that Mommy is not an absolute requirement for.

Your fellow parents will, as a rule understand, with the degree of understanding being related to how long it has been since the birth of their youngest child. People do eventually forget, which is why some parents have little sympathy for those who are chronically running late getting places after having a baby.

It doesn't matter how much you try to get an early start on getting ready to go somewhere. Baby will find a way to slow you down so that you're late.

Have to be somewhere first thing in the morning? Not to worry, baby will be up half the night so that you're exhausted. Such is the life for new parents, after all.

And of course, once you get there, it's as though you didn't walk in at all. But baby did! This is particularly true of family gatherings where everyone wants to see the new baby. On the other hand, you might be able to sit and rest a minute before baby starts screaming and wanting to be fed.

The time for your child to be a baby is short, and soon you'll no longer have the excuse of a small baby for why you're running late all the time. It's not that toddlers make it all that much easier or that you're more rested as they start sleeping through the night. It's easier to say baby needed something and that made you late than it is to say the same of a toddler.