Friday, March 23, 2012

My Brain is Fried

Remember that commercial from when we were youth.
The egg, sizzling in a pan. "This is your brain...on drugs"
Steer clear of drugs = No egg fried brain... or so I thought.

It seems though that having three children has similar results.

I'll spare you the the saga of me battling small house fires & carbon monoxide yesterday, and an unrelated flood this morning. You should know however it ended with me feeding my beautiful home made chicken pot pie to our dog for dinner and us eating egg sandwiches. That, my friends fortunately, is the most tragic part. I will share with you that it has most everything to do with me never having a minute to use my brain.

I'm not going to blame Marianne (and her internal clock that says 3:00 am is go time)
But let me remind you... last night was not the 1st small house fire I have battled since her birth.
Fires may be the extreme example of me loosing my marbles, but they are not the only one.

Prompt and responsible me has been late and missed countless meetings and appointments in the last few months attributed soley to a soggy brain.
I've lost multiple credit cards and a drivers license, the keys to our safe, and many other things that aren't as important.
I never manage to get home from the store with everything on my list... even if I made a list... and even if that list only had three thing on it.
"Where is my cell phone" I am always googling because I want to find one of those sites that will call it for free... because it is always lost. Always.
Last night as I was getting ready for bed I realized it was lost again.
The last place I had seen it was on the lawn, where it had been thrown when I evacuated the children to the lawn during yesterday's drama.
I called it. And heard it ringing somewhere out in the dark. And because I couldn't find a flashlight, crawled on my hands and knees until I felt it. Of course it was upside down so I couldn't see it lighting up. Of course.
And the list goes on and on.

Being an individual with a well working brain most my life it is a frustrating thing.
We joke that our girls have so much beautiful hair (and Jake has none) because when they were born Jake gave his hair to them. A sweet little family story.
The larger sacrifice I fear has been made by me. Our children also seem smart. Is it because when they were born I gave them my brain???
My friends warned me that three kids was the kicker.
They were right. I am sure moving right after having a baby doesn't help much either.
The strings to my sanity are wearing thin.
Tell me friends with lots of children... will my brain ever return?
Will I ever be able to remember things, not feel scattered, at least not almost catch the house on fire twice a year (please let it only be twice this year).

At least some how I am yet to lock myself out of car or house this year.
Something to build upon I guess.

Funnier still, I love those kids so much I kind of still want more of them.
And in the future (far future).
When we perhaps have another child.
You can- instead of sweet layettes- give me the following items as baby gifts

Fire extinguishers
carbon monixide alarms
plungers
flashlights
back up cell phones
personal organizers
copies of keys, kept at your house for when I need you to bring them to me
and a free pass when I forget to come to your birthday dinner.

4 comments:

T Daley said...

That is how I felt and still feel with having Grandma come live with us. (Just months after we moved, as if moving isn’t hard enough) I was once a person that had it together, the one everyone could count on.... not so much anymore :(
I think NO sleep is a big part of the whole losing of the brain thing! Grandma still gets up at 3 am every morning without fail after not going to bed till after midnight.
So here is what I am hoping... once sleep gets back to normal maybe,MAYBE my brain will start to slowly turn on again. Whenever that will be, I don’t know. But until then, CHOCOLATE helps ;)

DC Diva said...

I am equally amused and afraid by this post.

You would never know you are brain fried looking at how well you put together darling family pictures.

lilybit said...

yes. yes what? I don't know, but yes.

Lindsay said...

Yes, yes and yes! I remember when Miles was about 11 months old I had the conscious thought, "Wait... I haven't forgotten anything for at least a week..." I used to be able to keep track of random and not-so-random things in my head pretty well. Now, I rely on my calendar like my second brain! If I don't write the funny things down my kids say or do RIGHT AWAY, they're gone by the time Brian gets home from work and all I'm left with is "huh. I'm pretty sure something really funny happened today." Now Miles is almost 3, and I've accepted the fact that this must be my new life. :) So, the short answer to your question: for me it got better after about a year. But nowhere near where it once was... hopefully your recovery will be more complete!