Saturday, February 06, 2010

It's Official. I'm a Maternal Basketcase.

What happened to me? I used to have a good head on my shoulders and emotions that were, for the most part, controllable. Now I'm flighty and mildly paranoid, interspersed with random weeping and clumsiness. Such is motherhood.

I locked my darling baby in the car. I had my hands full, and prior to loading her infant seat in the car, I placed all other belonging- including keys- on the front seat. Somewhere between closing the back door and proceeding to the driver's side, the auto locks kicked in. I don't think I've ever felt my heart race so fast. It didn't help that Kendall was ready for lunch and was screaming in the car. Before heading to a neighbor's house to frantically call for help, I recalled Chris saying something about changing the code on the driver-door keypad...and, fortunately, I'm a good listener. It opened on the first try and I slowly regained sanity.

Later, I intended to feed the baby while at my church meeting since I'm not a huge fan of breast-feeding in public. With Kendall still fussy, I put together a bottle of formula. However, I neglected to include the oh-so-necessary nipple for said bottle. Plan B- whip out the boob. Awkward, but it worked. Too bad I also forgot the burp-rag.

It's unbelievable how much this little baby has rocked my world; namely, my sanity. I know I'm not the only one- many friends have retorted that they, too, have had the same experiences. They say that brain cells die during pregnancy and you never really get them back...I, apparently, won't be disproving this theory.

Basketcase or not, I'm loving every minute of it.

8 comments:

Becky said...

I once read parent horror stories on babycenter.com and most of them were about locking baby in the car. I brought this up at one of my showers and at least 4 of the moms in attendance had done the same thing. So, as you already know, you're in good company!

As for me, I seem to have more trouble with the debit card keypads at stores now and the other day I took someone else's drink at the UOP coffee shop, drank out of it, wondered why my order was wrong, THEN noticed the girl behind me whose drink I just defiled. Argh! Not sure how I'm supposed to function in the real world in 3 more weeks!

Angela said...

It's true. The brain cells never come back. "Mommy brain" is here to stay.

Donna said...

Welcome to MY world... I knew you'd understand me one day. Today Dad dropped me off at the ATM & went to park, and when I was finished I couldn't find the car. The Prius was nowhere in sight. After wandering through the parking lot for awhile I heard him call me... from the truck. Oops. :)

Becky said...

We snapped Kaitlyn's baby carrier into the car without buckling the harness a handful of times. Somehow, they make it through.

Anonymous said...

I would have to agree with Becky that the whole car seat buckle will and has been my downfall. It seems really easy to just put them in without it buckled and close their door....but then look in the mirror as you are driving down the road and begin to look frantically for the nearest place to pull over. Once Caleb was standing up as I got on the freeway! I tried not to flip cause I didnt want him to freak out and us end up in some crazy car accident. Needless to say we are all alive and well still :)

Jenny said...

So brain cells die during pregnancy? Oh, so that's what happened to me! ;0) Yeah, I'm a maternal basketcase too. You are not alone. But, like you, I'm loving it.

Paula White said...

Welcome to our special group Jamie. Yes, those brain cells are gone forever. When I became pregnant with William 16 years ago I lost my sense of direction, and it has never come back. Even with GPS I still get lost. Oh well...I have 3 great boys and no brain cells. I wouldn't change a thing!

Keith said...

Ask Liana to tell you our baby in the locked car story...