College of Engineering junior Cassy Meier gets up every day around 7:30 a.m.

Unlike most college students who grab a Pop-Tart on their rush out the door, Meier feeds her 8 and a half-month-old son Lucas fruit and oatmeal.

She gives Lucas a bottle and has some "tummy time" with him before dropping him off at Krueger Child Care Center most weekdays.

Meier, tall and bright-eyed, goes to class and stays on campus during her breaks. She also works 10 to 15 hours a week at General Electric.

She returns to her 22nd Street apartment at 7 p.m., and cooks dinner with her boyfriend, Nathan Schmitz, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After putting Lucas to bed, she goes to bed at 1 a.m.

This seems a far cry from the ordinary college student's life, yet Meier isn't complaining.

Meier said she thought she would be "in for a nightmare," but having a child has been easier than she expected.

"You get used to it," she said.

Drielle Welch, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, has also found her days packed since giving birth to her daughter, Camille, on Aug. 7, 2007.

On weekdays, Welch wakes up two hours before going to class to get Camille ready. She drops Camille off with a babysitter at Children's Orchard, a children's products re-sale store in West Allis, before going to class.

Welch said having a baby isn't easy, and requires constant work.

Her husband, Collin Welch, a senior and member of ROTC, said friends who watch Camille for a few hours don't realize the full-time commitment of having a baby.

"They'll watch her during the day and say how wonderful she is, but they don't understand that they only got her for six hours, and we have her for 24 hours," he said.

Drielle said life gets hard when Camille gets sick or doesn't sleep through the night.

Still, both parents agreed the best part of their day is seeing Camille wake up and smile.

"She'd look at me and smile, and no matter how bad my day had been going, that was it. It was great again," Collin said.

Before she had Lucas on May 10 during finals week last year, Meier said she lived spontaneously. Tree climbing, waking up at 3 a.m., or ice-skating—her life was unplanned.

Yet with a baby, classes and work, Meier said her days must be planned.

"Now, everything has changed, but in a good way," Meier said. "They're busy, very filled days, and I have to plan everything in advance before I can do it."

Ed de St. Aubin, Marquette associate professor of family psychology, said college makes students better parents because they act as good role models for their children by going to class and balancing work and school.

"Folks in class who are parents are often times the best at time management," Aubin said. "They're not out throwing the Frisbee around, but getting the assignment done."

Susan Mountin, director of the Manresa Project, ran a program seven years ago that provided college parents with emotional, spiritual and occasional babysitting help.

She also said although students' lives had changed, most found they were much better students once they became parents.

"I think they realize they're priorities have changed," Mountin said. "Things that may have been important before, like movies or parties, paled in comparison to this little life that was there."

Drielle was an R.A. in Cobeen and was engaged to Collin when she found out she was pregnant in October of last year. She said she doesn't go to parties anymore like she did her freshman and sophomore years.

"(Having the baby) hasn't really changed my life a whole lot, but I feel more responsible and mature than I was," she said.

Meier has found herself more patient and calmer about mundane things since having Lucas.

Expenses haven't been strenuous either, Meier said.

Her and her boyfriend's college tuitions have been paid off, she said. The couple pays $500 a month for rent and $33 for five hours of day care each week. Their main expense is groceries.

Cole is paying for college through student loans and from work as a desk receptionist last summer. Welch receives some money from ROTC but also uses loans.

The most expensive item has been formula. They spend about $12 to $13 a can and go through nine to 10 cans a week.

Drielle said she hopes Camille does not end up in the same situation she's in. She wishes she had waited longer to have children, but plans to have two or three when she graduates.

"Enjoy being young before it goes away," Collin said.

Still, the parents both agreed they wouldn't change the experience for the world.

"For as much as we miss from what we used to do, she's amazing," Drielle said. "Her smile and the way she loves you unconditionally just makes everything that much better."