Generally, I would have to say that my mind hasn’t been much different than usual. I will be the first to admit that I get distracted by shiny objects and rely on a well organized sticky note system to keep me in line most days. That being said, I have had a couple times in the past couple months where I just shake my head and blame the “baby brain.”
A couple months ago now…which is insane in itself when I look at how quickly time has passed, but I’m pretty certain the clock gets faster and faster as the years go by. Sorry, shiny object. A couple months ago, I did what I always do, and I packed my schedule as full as it could get. I was part of the organizing committee and MC for a conference in town here, and the closer those days came, the more tasks we had put on our to do list. Further to that, The week before the conference, I got a call suggesting that I attend an annual conference that was on the following Friday/Saturday. Two things: my conference was Wednesday/Thursday, and this second conference was a 10 hour drive away. Yeah, that was not enough to stop me. I would figure it out, even with the 22 or 24 weeks of pregoness. Should be fine…
In order to not drive ten hours overnight, I figured that I would drive 5, and then hop on a plane for the rest. Easy enough. But then there was still the conference before that. We had sorted out a game plan. I would be able to spend the majority of the day at my conference and then hop in the car and drive from there. Of course the winter weather decided to kick in, which caused complications…so instead, I had to bow out a little earlier, which sucked because the conference was AWESOME.
After doing my part, I hopped in the car and hit the road. The five hour drive went smoothly enough despite the winter wonderland, and I made it to the airport by the 14th hour of that day. About three hours later I was in my destination city and pretty much looking like a zombie. A zombie with good hair at least 😉 I made the call for my hotel shuttle and was told to go out a specific entrance to a specify parking bay and the shuttle should be there in about 5.
I found my target bay without issue and was chuckling to myself because the weather was so mild, I didn’t even need a jacket…soon enough, the shuttle pulled up. The driver came out and grabbed my bag for me while I climbed in. I was so happy to be that much closer to sleep and the driver was very nice. We chatted on the way to the hotel and then I saw the hotel that he was pulling into. Um…this isn’t the Clarion. Right about the time I was realizing the situation, he received a call from his hotel. It was clear that they were calling to find out why he hadn’t picked the lady up at the airport, “But I have a lady, which lady is there now?” Yeah…in my zombie state, I got on the wrong shuttle and now this poor dude had to go back and pick up his original call out and I had to figure out where my legit shuttle was.
I called the hotel back and the shuttle driver was a grump. I explained what happened and that I was a couple minutes out, and he said that he would come back, but not until 1245 am which was almost an hour from then. Seriously? I told him that it was a mistake and told him I would be there shortly, because he couldn’t be too far away himself. He provided me hope in saying to just call when I got there. Sure enough, a few minutes later when I pulled up, I called again. At this point buddy just flat out said he would be back at 1245 and that was that. After a ridiculously long day, I was ready to lose my shit on this guy. It’s not very often that I ask for favors, but it was a long day and there were a list of rants going through my mind. Is this how you treat veterans, let alone a pregnant one…but like I said, I don’t like pulling out those cards so I just bit my tongue and said okay before hanging up. I didn’t know if it was the exhaustion or the hormones, but I wanted to throw something at that guy. I am pretty certain that this nice driver sensed my unstable state and let me know that he would make this last pick up and then drop me at my hotel. I wanted to give him a hug.
You would think that this would be the end to all my drama, but unfortunately, I was on a roll that night. After another quick drive to the other hotel, we dropped off his actual guests, and then he drove me to my hotel. On the way, he let me know that he was off at midnight, and it was now 5 after. Further to that, he said that he worked in the morning at another job, which just made me feel horrible, and then my heart sunk when I realized I did not have any cash to even give him a tip! I told him this and the fact that I felt horrible about it when he dropped me off. He was so nice, he said he was just happy that he was able to help. Finally, I was able to get to sleep….or so I thought.
I went and checked in. The not so nice shuttle driver from there was doing his paperwork to go home now that he didn’t have to pick me up. You would think that coming to get me earlier than later would have worked to his advantage, but I didn’t care at that point. With room key in hand, I took my suit case and walked toward the elevator, while reaching for my phone….my phone. It wasn’t in the ridiculously small back pocket of the stupid maternity jeans that I was wearing. I checked my other pockets, my coat…oh no…
There was a point earlier in the night where I noticed how small the pockets were in those jeans and how I should pay extra attention to make sure that my phone stays in the pocket. Keep in mind that at this had been several hours earlier and I had a little rant in my head about how stupid the design of these jeans were…but still. How did I let this happen? I grabbed my work phone and called my phone right away hoping that it was miraculously going to start ringing right next to me and I was slightly less of an idiot than I currently thought I was. Unfortunately, no dice, and there was no answer either. I called back again. “Yeah, I have it. Let me drop off the shuttle and I’ll be back.” THANK YOU!!!! I had to do something for this guy, because I am pretty certain I single-handedly wrecked his night. This called for a trip to the ATM! I was so incredibly thankful to my knight in a somewhat dirty Jetta that saved my cell phone.
If there was any time for me to write something off as baby brain, it was this!!!
As I was walking up to my room, all I wanted to do was send a text to my wife to let her know that tonight, shit show was spelled S-U-E, and then go to sleep. I did need to be up in a handful of hours, so sleep was a good idea. Finally I was able to crash…are you kidding me?!?
I knew that at some point I would eventually feel this kid moving, but why on earth did it have to be at 1 o-clock in the morning after an insanely long day? Because that is just how I roll. I spent the next hour or so trying desperately to ignore what felt like the blue man group beating out a concert in my tummy. Luckily, there was no encore that night!
One thing is for sure though, it’ll be hard to forget the first time I felt her kick…even if I could do without the build up!
Adventures of Offspring 