Travel stress…

Clear skies!

Do you hear or use the excuse “baby and/or pregnancy brain?” Is that for real? My debacle getting to the airport yesterday is just one example of both.

Some people experience travel anxiety, but travelling with a baby while you are pregnant compounds that. I woke up last week every day at 4am during the week and was unable to fall back to sleep as I thought of a million work and personal things I had to do before vacation. I got out of bed and started checking things off my to-do list. I was a machine when I got to the office as there was lots of open action items. I felt a sense of relief when I left work last Friday, but I still had to focus on at home.

Less than twenty-four hours before departure, someone without kids asked me, “What’s the big deal? Grab a few diapers and that’s all you need.” I tried to keep my cool, but part of the stress of travelling with kids is not knowing if my son would be awake the whole flight and aggravate all of the other travelers as he is very active.

I thought I had everything we needed yesterday including changes of clothes for our son, Andrew, books and toys for the flight, drinks and food for when his ears popped. I called a taxi to pick us up, but the first taxi never arrived. Finally, I decided we would wait outside with all of our stuff so we would be sure to see the taxi. The taxi company said my cab called me and was in front of my home, but neither were the case. As I hung up the phone, my son took off running.

Finally, the third taxi arrived. I put everything in the trunk, but yelled to my neighbor (mother of two) that my purse got stolen. I was beside myself. I texted my husband that I would have to call the lock smith to let me into the house if he were not able to leave work soon and let us in so I could get my password and go to the bank since I had no purse.

My husband soon arrived to the rescue and found my pursue inside! Hooray! I locked myself out and left my purse inside in a baby brain frenzy. No one had stolen my purse in a short period of time, which my husband always suspected.

I felt like a train wreck and appreciated my neighbor sharing her own baby and pregnancy brain story with my husband and me. She was pregnant with her second daughter when she managed to lock herself out of her house with the baby sleeping and the oven set at 400 degrees. Her husband’s phone was off on the golf course, but the lock smith saved the day.

These debacles prompted me to do some pregnancy and/or baby brain research. According to Web MD, pregnancy does not change the brain, but women’s memory and ability to multi-task usually feels compromised. Pregnancy books, other Moms and empirical data shows it exists. It’s basically common sense – being busy, stressed and/or sleep deprived causes memory lapse. There are also pregnancy and post-pregnancy hormones that impact the brain.

Yesterday was a happy ending – we made it to the airport on time and had a smooth flight with Andrew sleeping the whole time!

www.lipstickandlollypops.com