Pregnancy Brain

So there is an often mentioned side effect of growing your own baby known as “pregnancy brain.” While I have noticed it here and there over the last 7 months, mostly in ways that make me sound like Mrs. Malaprop from The Rivals (see malapropisms - http://www.fun-with-words.com/mala_explain.html) or George W. Bush, recently I feel as though I am walking around in a fog! It is hard to get through life when I can’t ever seem to remember what I am doing. Most of the time, aside from my misspoken comments, I am pretty good at concealing my new absentmindedness, but lately it has gotten a little ridiculous!

Yesterday I got up and got ready for my Doctor’s appointment. I remembered that my gas tank was nearly empty and drove by a filling station on the way. Much better than last time, I thought to myself. Last time I was driving down Greenbriar, almost to the Med Center, when I looked down to check my speed and saw (and remembered I’d noticed it the day before) that my gas gauge was BELOW the E. Yipes! Lucky for me there is a Valero on the corner of Kirby and Sunset and I still made my appointment on time.

So anyway, so proud of myself for starting off the day remembering instead of forgetting things, I pulled into the parking garage and spiraled up, up, up before I found a spot. As I was going down in the garage elevator I realized that I did not have a clue which floor I’d actually parked on – except that it wasn’t 3, because the elevator made another stop there. Great. I had visions of being the pregnant lady roaming the parking garage looking for her car.

So I signed in at the office, got called back, got the usual spiel from the nurse, and went into the usual bathroom and grabbed a cup to give the requisite sample. Suddenly it dawned on me that in her spiel, the nurse generally either tells me which exam room is ready for me or if I need to go to the waiting room, and I had no clue what she said. So I didn’t know where my car was or where I was supposed to go after I finished with the cup. Not so great. Then I realized that through all of this thinking, I’d finished, but there was nothing in my cup! As I had marveled over my inability to pay attention to fairly important details, I’d completely forgotten to provide my sample! Brilliant, because then I had to explain to the nurse that I did not know where I needed to go and that I didn’t leave a sample, despite having come out of the restroom. Luckily, I drink a lot of water and was able to supply what they needed before I left – but not before being asked where it was at least 3 more times. It’s amazing to me that all 9 prenatal visits have been essentially the same, and I managed to look like I still have no clue what is going on.

My luck got a little better, though, and I picked the right garage floor, finding my car without any difficulty, despite my fears. The rest of my day however, continued in much the same fog, but with less embarrassment.