Well, That's a First

We got an early start today for a Saturday morning.  We were expecting company at nine so we had to get moving.  As usual, I didn't get nearly as much sleep as I needed so the snooze alarm was used heavily.  Eventually I managed to drag myself out of bed but I fought the yawns all morning.

A friend of mine from work was coming over with her little girl for a play date.  The girls are only seven months apart and they've finally reached a stage where the age gap is narrowing.  In another year, it will hardly be noticeable.  She is expecting another baby in the spring and has decided to leave work and take a stab at being a stay-at-home-mom.  On one hand, I am so envious...yet on the other hand, I don't know if I could do it.  I know I would absolutely love it at first, but in the long run I think I would find it actually harder than going to work.

Anyway, they were delayed due to a slight mishap that involved a call to poison control.  I heard you're not a real mom until you've done that at least once.  The culprit?  Liquid dishwasher detergent.  She saw it happen and quickly jumped into action.  Thankfully her daughter is fine and it doesn't appear that she swallowed any of it.

She was able to laugh and joke about it after the fact, but I'm sure she had that moment of sheer panic that all moms have when accidents happen.  I've had it many times...when I cracked Punky's head off the wooden arm of the rocking chair at a few weeks old, let her fall of the bed at six months old, thought she swallowed a bloody band-aid at nine months, etc.  I'll admit, it's really quite a list (as I hang my head in shame).

After they left, Punky's dad and I ended up on the topic of preggo-brain, probably since I joked that my friend has that perfect excuse to blame for the morning's events.  Of course, being a guy and all, he totally dismisses the idea that such an animal exists.  But anyone who's ever experienced pregnancy can attest to it.

I reminded him of some of the stupid things I did while pregnant, and told him how I think I still suffer sometimes.  Seriously.  I read a lot about the chemical changes that take place in the brain during pregnancy, and how sometimes the effects are permanent.  All I know is that since Punky came along, my brain gets...fuzzy.

I posted before about the brain freeze I experience once in a while at work.  My mind gets stuck looping around the same circle for a few minutes while I struggle to get on with my next thought...like a skipping 45 just begging for someone to bump the needle.  It makes me feel so...confused, almost dazed at times, but thankfully it only lasts a minute or two and then things clear up again.

And my memory...geez...that surely isn't what it used to be.  Mentally I was the epitome of organization.  Lists of all sorts tucked safely away in the corners of my mind that could be referenced when needed.  I don't recall ever feeling absent-minded pre-pregnancy, but now I have a bad habit of forgetting things.  Little things usually, like to stop for milk on the way home from work.  Stuff like that.  And it's worse the busier I am.  Seems like my mind now only has room for a certain number of things at one time...it does an auto-sort and dumps the rest at will.  Again, usually the trivial stuff.

So, I wrote all of this to preface what happened later that afternoon...

During Punky's short nap, I wasted no time running around the house like a maniac trying to accomplish as much as I could without her "helping" me every step of the way.  It's a fun stage, and she's adorable, but damn...it takes forever to do just about anything.   By the time she woke up, I had fifty things going on at once which meant something was destined to get bounced right out of my head.

She asked for some juice and played for a few minutes before telling me she needed a diaper change.  I dismissed it for a bit while I tried to finish up a couple of things, but when I finally got around to it I wished I hadn't.  It was a stinky diaper and my lallygagging gave her ample opportunity to really mush it around and make a mess.  Sixteen wipes or so later, I finally finished the job on auto-pilot as my mind focused on getting back to the other things I was trying to accomplish.

I stopped for a pee break myself about fifteen minutes later, and Punky came into the bathroom walking like she just got off a horse.  She told me diaper change again, and I said no way...until I saw that she was completely soaked. 

"What the hell?" I mumbled as I pulled her pants off right there in the bathroom.  To my surprise, I was greeted by a totally bare hiney.

Apparently I forgot to put another diaper on my child after that messy diaper change.  I'm not exactly new at this.  I couldn't even begin to guess at the number of diaper changes I've done in the last two years.  How the hell did I manage to pull her pants up and never even notice the diaper was missing?  

And geez, she is almost two.  It had to feel different not having that puffy, crinkly-sounding thing on under her pants.  For all the yapping she does these days, she could've told me that I forgot it.  If dinner is two minutes late she carries on like she hasn't eaten in weeks.  At least I'll never forget to feed her.