Pregnancy Brain Strikes Again

I guess I hadn't noticed that my brain had been functioning normally for several weeks.  Must be one of those "absence makes the heart grow fonder" things, because it's clearly gone again.


Yesterday I left for work without shoes.  At least when it was winter and I did this, I was wearing slippers that might pass for really really cheap faux hiking boots.  Not so when it's 63 degrees outside (which, for this pregnant woman is about 15 degrees warmer than perfect).  We didn't get far before I turned around and headed back.


This morning I dropped Corey off at school on my way to work.  Two miles from his school (so maybe three or four from home), I realized I was again unshod.  Doh!  I did spend a minute contemplating the fact that I've gotten away with kicking my shoes off at work; maybe I could get into the office with no shoes, too?  But then I remembered how often I have to use the restroom and decided it was better to be late.  Mad and I turned around ("We go awound!") and headed home.  While there I grabbed a cup of juice for the road.


Two miles away AGAIN I realized that I'd left my purse at home.  The good news is that I was able to bring my juice cup in and rinse it out, thereby having one less thing making my car smell like that (ugh! it's a mom-car smell... like stale Cheerios).


At the same intersection where I recalled my purse, I realized I'd left the new package of hair bands that was supposed to go to Grandma's house.  With any luck those will make it to Grandma's house tomorrow.


I stuck close to the office all day today, so I never lost anything there.  But there's always another chance while picking up Mad, right?  Right.  Apparently my cell phone came out of my pants pocket while I was sitting on the couch.  I use it for an alarm in the mornings so I don't have to crawl out of bed and shuffle over to the alarm clock on the dresser.  Fortunately I remembered to tell my dad to shut the phone off so they didn't have a shrill bell ringing every five minutes starting at 5:15 tomorrow morning.


And when we arrived at home this evening, I left my shoes in the car.  Shoes 2, Me 1.


Please let me remember my bra tomorrow.

Brainiac

Here's a little comparison of this pregnancy to the ones with Corey and Madelyn:


With Corey I was sick all the time.  Any time.  Any place.  In the mall parking lot between two expensive cars.  Twice.  (I rode the bus to work and couldn't always make it to the McDonald's in time.  I'll bet the moms who were in the restroom with their kids each time I did make it were grateful for the days when I didn't.)  I vomited for three months, took a three month break and then started up again.  The doctor wanted to prescribe medication.  Suppositories!  Thank god for the pharmacist at Thrifty's; he suggested Sea Bands.  They worked well enough that I "only" lost five pounds my last month.  (No worries, Corey was 8.0 pounds and, as the doctor proclaimed, "Perfect!")  When it came to food, grapefruit was in, anything remotely spicy brought on contractions.  What does "remotely spicy" mean?  I couldn't even handle rye bread.


I did not throw up once with Madelyn until two hours before she was born.  It seems to be a requirement that I puke at some point in labor, so my plan this time is to just get it over with instead of fighting it.  I did not get off scot free.  There were exactly four and a half months of persistent nausea.  But there was a trade-off for standing in the bathroom facing away from the toilet and telling myself out loud that I wasn't going to turn around because I knew if I looked it'd be over.  Mad and I got to keep whatever I ate (and nothing... not even Indian food bothered her).  I just couldn't keep all of my brain cells.


With this pregnancy I've noticed even less nausea than with Madelyn.  (Part of me thinks that I could be totally nausea-free in three more pregnancies... if I aspired to be Michelle Duggar.)  Mostly it happens in the evening, and the oddest things can make it worse.  The other night I was heading into the kids' bathroom, hoping to win yet another fight with the porcelain gods.  Seeing that Tom hadn't drained the water from Mad's bath the night before almost pushed me over the edge.  And while I have not tried to put on shoes without pants, Baby Brain has struck early and often.


The latest hit came today, when I left home without my insurance card (and so had to postpone today's blood work 'til tomorrow) and shoes!  I usually keep my grown up shoes in the car and wear slippers for the drive down.  Not so today.  What did I have on the schedule?  Only going out to meet with several local businesses followed by a committee meeting with the head of the Economic Development Department to report our findings.  In slippers.

Pregnancy Brain

***This is from a post I'd made on my MySpace page in October of 2007.

In the last couple of weeks I have noticed that my memory isn't what it once was. I'm not saying it was great, but now it's not even up to my own low standards. This week I've been reading a lot about "pregnancy brain." It's basically the result of too many hormones floating around; keeping track of things and remembering stuff you'd usually remember becomes more difficult. I had a doctor tell me once that memory is the first thing to go when you get pregnant.

This is the thing I never had to deal with during my pregnancy with Corey that I'm having this time. Sort of like the flip side of the morning sickness experience (six months of heinous vomiting last time, only nausea this time).


This morning I got up and started getting dressed. Clothes are beginning to get a little tight, but not my clothes. Well, they're mine now; a friend gave me a bunch of pants in the next size up from mine, so I've got a little more time before maternity clothes than I would otherwise. So I put on a sweater, some underwear that I'm not sure I'm loving how they feel and a pair of the jeans I just received. The jeans felt a little more snug than I'd like, but I figured it was okay until I started putting my shoes on. Leaning over to tie them up was an exercise in holding my breath and feeling squashed, so I took the shoes off, removed the pants, decided to ditch the panties for a different pair and went back to put my shoes on. I immediately felt the difference as I leaned over to lace up and do all the little hooks on my hiking boots (they make comfy shoes on cold mornings). Just as I finished tightening up the laces I realized one serious mistake:


I hadn't put any pants on!!


Part of me was on the verge of tears, but then I started laughing. What a freaking dork!

You'd think a day could only go up from there, and you'd probably be right, except you'd be missing the part where I accidentally snagged Nancy's phone before heading back to the office this afternoon. (It's the same model as mine.) As I drove away, I wondered why she hadn't started out, too. So I stopped to wait for her. After a few minutes I decided to call her and see what was up. Imagine my chagrin when I heard her phone ringing from my purse!


Well, at least I didn't have clothing or phone issues every day this week. The only other problem was on Wednesday. I went straight to a high school career center to meet with the woman who's issuing work permits for some of my students. As I was speaking with her, I went to tug on the bottom of my shirt. When I did, I thought I noticed the seam on the outside. Which it was.


In my extremely smooth manner, I pretty much shrieked, Oh my god, I've got my shirt on inside out! To which the mild-mannered woman in front of my responded by saying she had noticed but thought it was "one of those shirts, you know, with the seams on the outside like they wear these days."


If only I could have kept my mouth shut, but no, that is never my way. At least I haven't forgotten everything!