I heard the Serene One laughing the other night while reading "The Expectant Father." Here's an excerpt:
...if your partner has been forgetful lately, or seems to be losing a lot of things--including her memory--it may be because her brain is shrinking. Yep. Anita Holdcroft, an English anethesiologist, found that during pregnancy, women's brains actually get 3 to 5 percent smaller. Now that you know this, it's probably best that you keep it to yourself. You could mention it in the hope that your partner will forget it right away, but if she doesn't you're in big trouble. And anyway, the shrinkage seems to be attibuted to the brain cells being compressed--not to an actual loss of cells. And, oh yes, it generally clears up within a few months after the birth.
So far (knock wood), I haven't had any noticeable memory loss. I'm still constantly tired. The other day, I ran out of energy so suddenly in the shower that I only shaved one leg. I guess the fatigue is not helped by the fact that I am waking up every morning around 4 or 5am to eat a snack.
Somewhere along the line I failed to make the connection that you take care of a newborn after 9 months of increased physical/emotional load and a big exhausting finish. Too bad we can't freeze dry the kid after birth, take a vacation and then come back to care for it.
I'm doing my best to remember that this is a cool, transformative, mother naturey, empowering experience. I loved this photo when I ran across it:
The annex is fed now, so back to bed. By the way, The Serene One has now rejected Zaphod as a name. Apparently, there is a Sci-Fi Baby Name book out there. I gotta get me one of those.
4 comments:
How do you know you haven't had any noticeable memory loss if you had memory loss about the memory loss?
I think it goes something like this:
"When you're pregnant, you lose two things - you lose your memory, and you can't remember what the other thing is..."
I'm impressed that you have the mental capacity to blog when up for your early morning snacks.
Sorry about Oreo's passing. Hopefully, Jennifer Love Hewitt showed it to the light.
Regarding you comment, "Somewhere along the line I failed to make the connection that you take care of a newborn after 9 months of increased physical/emotional load and a big exhausting finish." I like to point out (perhaps maliciously) that the pain and trouble of pregnancy doesn't really peak until about 4 to 6 months after birth when full exhaustion takes over. Once they start sleeping through the night, then it starts getting better, IMO. Of course, my kids are little terrors.
RU planning any semi-nude, glamour pregnancy photos a la the one you showed or the recent Christina Aguilara?
Stickman: See my followup post :)
Brenda: I have to get better at going right back to sleep
Mo: Hey, I need encouragement here!! The Serene One has already taken some fun belly shots. Not really glamorous,but something to remember this experience by.
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