Adventures with Pregnancy Brain

Most days I try to rewind NPR when I'm in the car (a la the DVR), or try to open my office or front door with the remote for the car, or reach for the volume knob when I want the AC turned down, but this morning I realize that very few of my synapses are firing correctly.

See how the water dispenser is next to the light switch?

Usually the light is on when I'm in the kitchen getting water, and when I leave I turn it off. More often than not, I will turn off the light when the water gets to the top of the container. Then the water keeps spilling out, while I stand in the dim kitchen, watching a puddle form on the floor. I don't suppose the sleep deprivation that I'm heading for is going to be any better, huh? 

Because a wise woman once told me "Anything worth doing is worth doing well"

The assignment for the childbirth class this week was to pack our labor bag and write our "Birthday Wishes." I'll admit that I have not so much as glanced at the birthday wishes worksheet yet (I did cut and paste a birth plan together), but the labor bag packing? It is underway.

Frank & I forgot to do the last assignment, which was "Think about a 'labor project'" which basically meant "Think of things to do IN YOUR HOUSE instead of going to the hospital because you will get sent back home if you aren't dilated." Suggestions were: take a shower, bake something for the nurses, watch your favorite movie. When the instructor went around the circle asking people what they were going to do, we basically jumped on the people who went ahead of us & said, "Oh yeah, that's what we thought of too!" Then a debate sprang up about Yahtzee vs Uno vs Scrabble as The Game of Choice and we didn't feel like we failed the assignment, somehow.

This week, though, the labor bag packing is In Full Effect. I have hair bands of various shades and ponytail holders. I have those pillows that are full of buckwheat or whatever that you can heat up, and baggies for ice because maybe ice will make the pain feel better, but then again what if it's heat that I want? I have Mama Bees Body Oil in case Frank all of a sudden wants to give me a proper backrub, and a tennis ball in case he's just winging it. The cribbed birthplan is sitting on top. There's lip balm in there, too. Tonight, I went to the store to buy mints. Heaven forbid that we go to the hospital without mints. Now, the mints that I bought are not Our Mints of Choice, but they are the Mints that Will Suffice For Now. Full disclosure: I will most likely buy Our Mints of Choice soon, if not tomorrow. Adding them to a list to be bought further in the future will not do. This bag will be packed and brought to class, and others will be awed by my clearly superior bag packing skills. And selection of breath fresheners.

On the way to babyville

Every once in awhile a friend or family member will ask me for a picture. When that happens, I'll go to the bathroom of the school where I am that day, and snap one with my blackberry, then email it to them. I finally pulled them all off of my blackberry & put them all together in one little album. So there is a nice progression of photos of my ever-expanding belly in various bathrooms. Keeping it klassee.

I'll keep adding to it until the kidlet is born, so check back!