I've written a lot about the costs, stress increases, etc. associated with having a baby. I haven't really written much about the positives. I don't know how to do that well, but I attempt it here. How does a baby affect your happiness?
Having a baby changes your life. Everyone knows this. What I haven't really seen though is a really accurate picture of how it affects your stress level. I probably can't provide that picture either for many reasons, but here is my attempt at capturing some obvious and some non-obvious ways that a baby affects our stress levels.