A few words on "Pregnancy Brain"

Whether or not there is such a thing as “Pregnancy Brain” or “Momnesia” is a matter of debate. According to WebMD there are of course several factors that can contribute to memory issues that some say can occur during pregnancy. For one, you’re not getting the best sleep which can always contribute to forgetfulness. Other factors include the additional hormones that can affect brain function in weird ways. Now, I will admit that at times I feel forgetful, but I don’t think it’s anymore noticeable than when I wasn’t carrying this little bundle of hormones. So I have to say, it irritates me when people at work just attribute any mistake to my pregnancy. Now, the main culprit, I had already been aware of his thoughts on pregnant women as when I first started there, one of the clients was pregnant and a mistake had been noted on her file. Well Mr. Perfect said “What do you expect? She’s pregnant”. I was offended back then! Well, he hadn’t said anything like that to me… that is until yesterday. I had mistakenly drafted some documents to the wrong person and when I handed him back the corrected documents I had apologized for the mistake and he said “That’s ok. You’re pregnant” Really!!? I hadn’t noticed! I really wanted to say… “That’s ok. You’re a…. Okay, I won’t finish that sentence because I’m the bigger person, but I’m sure you can use your imagination. Then today, we received some documents that I had inadvertently mailed to the wrong attorney’s office. This was on a file for a female attorney that I don’t mind working for as she is always polite and considerate. I explained that I must have grabbed the wrong envelope when I mailed it. She smiled and said “it must be that pregnancy brain”. Her too!? Ok… everyone makes mistakes but it irritates me when people want to attribute it to my pregnancy! True, there are some preggo’s out there that will use the “Pregnancy Brain” as an excuse, and I guess that’s fine for them, but I don’t think it should be an assumption from others. Okay, maybe I’m overreacting a little… but only a little! And I won’t attribute that to pregnancy either! :) That I do anyway, without the help of hormonal interference.

So much to do!

Time is going by so quickly and there is still so much to do! My mission this week is to get on top of the freezer meals and start making them to pack away for baby's arrival. I have printed several recipes out from the very informative and helpful blog Once A Month Mom. If you are thinking about starting to do freezer meals, this is a great resource as it has tips for the beginner and helpful hints from other readers. Plus a boatload of recipes each month! The best part is, it's free! I don't think I'll have one big day of cooking for my first attempts. I think this week I'm going to make a few of the meals for our dinner during the week and just make double so I can freeze the other half. That will at least get me started.

We still have to finish organizing the second bedroom where we have just thrown stuff in there since finishing the baby's room. I know if it doesn't get done before baby, it will probably remain a mess for the foreseeable future, that is until we have gotten into a routine with the baby. We still have to organize our bedroom and put the bassinet down there so the baby has a place to sleep! And I have to get filling for the seat and foot rest on my glider so that I have a place to nurse in the middle of the night! And lastly, we have to sand and paint the dresser so that it matches the crib and so that I can finally have a place to put all of the baby clothes!

That doesn't sound like too much in 5 weeks does it!? Sigh... I thought I was doing so well! :)


On a side note, I can't believe it's the holiday season already! Thanksgiving is just over a week away! Eeek! I haven't done any Christmas shopping which I probably should do because I doubt I'll have the time or the energy/will to go with a newborn!


My other mission this week is to make sure we have our hospital bag packed. Really, anything can happen from this point on so want to not wait until the last minute for that!

Assembly Required

I know, I've been a delinquent blogger again. For those of you keeping track, this is my first post of November and we're already 8 days into it! Well the big news thus far is that the crib is in place! First of all, we had put the crib in "layaway" at Babies R Us. It's sort of layaway because they don't really have the item in the store but once you pay it off they will order it from where ever it was being held captive and call you for pick up "within 7-14 days". They should tell you more likely between 13 and 14 days. Seven days had passed and I was thinking, it should be any day now. Then it just so happened I was checking Babies R Us online for the color of our crib because we were still searching for a dresser to go with the crib and it turned out the crib was $100 cheaper! So I went in to the physical store to ask them if we'll be able to get that sale price. They told me I would be able to once the merchandise was in the store and we were picking it up. This was a big fiasco because nobody, not even the online customer service representative on their 800 number, could tell me when this sale might end. So that whole week I kept checking to make sure the crib was still on sale online. As the end of the week approached and day 14 loomed on the horizon I got a call on day 13 that the crib was in! We headed over that night to pick it up. The funny thing was that we took the old Subaru because I thought it would fit fine in the back. Well, the box was like twice the size of the crib inside. Our solution was for Marc to go next door to Pep Boys to get some straps so we could strap it to the hood of the car. Luckily, an employee suggested... why not just take it out of the box? GENIUS! So that's what we did, got all the pieces home safely and this weekend mom and sister helped me put it together (with Marc's blessing of course, as he was off hunting).

Of course, I have had prior experience helping assemble the crib mom purchased for brother which we twice assembled. (Once at his apartment and once at mom's house.) Both times the instructions were ridiculous to follow. Seriously! Whoever writes instructions for assembly must speak a different language called Confus-ish. It's like trying to follow a joke told by someone who doesn't remember how to get to the punch line. Then there are the pictures you're supposed to follow. In big letters on each page it says "Models may vary". What the heck is the point of looking at the picture if it's of a different model?! The finally frustration comes with the use of the allen wrench. I know it's supposed to be a simple tool that anyone can use and they even include it in the hardware, it's just a pain in the butt! Anyway... we really only made one boo boo that we had to disassemble and reassemble when we had the mattress frame on upside down. Luckily that was noticed right away so we weren't too far into that step. But we assembled the crib and it looks lovely in the room.

Sara and mom using the allen wrench.

 

Mom working, Sara posing.

Completed Crib!

I may be posting more pictures but these were the only ones on my phone. Sara took others with her phone and I took an especially cute one of her butt as she fit between the bottom crib rail and the mattress frame to finish screwing in the final screws on the bottom that I'd like to add. We'll see if she deleted that one!

Our next project will be to sand and stain the dresser we found on craigslist this past weekend! Also coming up this weekend, a tour of the maternity/delivery unit at Swedish. It's getting closer!