Mother Brain Rot

I remember a friend once telling me about how when you get pregnant your memory and concentration seem to go out the window. And then you give birth... and it gets worse. She called it "mother brain rot." I didn't really notice this phenomenon while pregnant or much in the following 7 months (though maybe Zach can give a more accurate assessment on this.

The past week, however.... oh man. I'm all of a sudden realizing that my brain? Seems to have left me. For example, last night I washed a load of laundry at the communal facilities. When I checked the dryer after the load should've been done the clothes were still damp. I figured I'd used to low of a setting, and paid to let it go another round. It wasn't till Zach went to get the clothes the 2nd time that it became clear I'd been putting money into the wrong dryer. In my defense it's one of those stacked dryer set-ups and it can be confusing knowing which side are the settings for which dryer, but still. I felt like a complete and total idiot, partially b/c my mistake meant Zach had to stay up late to wait for the clothes to actually dry.

There's so many things that I know we packed with us for the flight, that I can't seem to find. Like 2 of D's feeding spoons. Or his vitamin D drops (which I found today... in a spot that I-- now-- specifically remember putting away). Oh, and this morning I pulled out my breast pump, figuring I might as well try pumping after feedings to help increase supply a bit and maybe start using milk rather than formula for his cereal. Except it turns out that spending over a week in a half-empty suitcase getting jumbled up every time I went in there looking for something, means small but essential parts are likely to break. Fabulous. I don't know wh yI didn't think to, you know, take it out and put my $200 pump in a safe place when we started unpacking to begin with.

I don't know if this last one is related to Mother Brain Rot, but as of late my decision-making abilities have also gone to pot. Case in point: since we decided not to do the last-minute air-shipment after all, work agreed to pay for essentials that we bought here to make up for the things we would have sent over. So we wound up keeping our Maclaren Volo till the end, giving it to a friend, and then were to buy a new stroller when we got here. I loved the Volo, but decided it would be worth it to upgrade to a model that reclined. And thus I began the Triumph-vs-Quest debate, and I spent so much time looking at each of them online, comparing and contrasting, and could.not.make.up.my.damn.mind. I liked the extra features of the Quest (footrest, window on sunshade) but thought the Triumph looked cuter (or at least had better colors). I finally went with the Quest, figuring I might as well get the better features since it's on someone else's dollar... and yet I'm still second-guessing my decision and wondering about Babies R Us's return policy. It's ridiculous. I have no reason not to be happy with our stroller, but I've got half a mind to order the Triumph I want and return the stroller I decide I like least. Somebody stop me.

Zach, of course, has been championing for the Triumph all along b/c it shares its name with Conan's imfamous insult-comic dog.