Our Brain

'Mommy-brain', in my experience, is a real phenomenon.  It's not really surprising if you think about it.  Take a normal brain, add a ton of crazy hormones, eliminate sleep and introduce the most life changing event possible and I think almost anyone would misplace their keys a few extra times or forget if they'd showered or not.

Blame it on the Oxytocin, but since delivering Colin, I am a much more affable person.  Overall, either by hormone induction or necessity, I'm more laid back, easier going and less task and goal oriented, although this seems to be shifting back a bit.  For a while, I had no problem considering a day a success when I showered and cuddled baby (still an awesome day, btw).

So I guess it shouldn't, although in retrospect it still does, surprise me that I didn't have a complicated and intricate notebook for tracking everything baby when baby arrived.  In fact, I didn't even really have a plan.  Gavin and I had a plan for long term for our cooperative parenting once I went back to work, but I hadn't thought about the first few weeks of Colin's life.

When Colin went to NICU, the journal that I'd brought to the hospital naively thinking I'd write loving entries to my son during labor (haha), became his NICU journal for whichever family member was bedside to record anything doctor's said, any test results, medications etc.

THE Notebook

So, like that, this journal became our brain.  When we came home, it evolved to include his eating and diaper schedule as well as our to do list, diaper bag packing list, shopping list, mom's medications and diet, pretty much anything that we needed to know because, well, Mommy Brain.

I love that little notebook.  It's pretty much the least manly looking thing you could find, but it worked and it's saved us all kinds of stress.  I think what I love most about it is how impromptu it was. Instead of complicated spreadsheets and lists (which I must say I'm famous for) it's just a functional collection of information developed by Gavin and me together as we needed it.

The Notebook in action.  He didn't go anywhere without it!

Over the last week or so, the notebook has slowly been used less and less.  Soon, I'll probably be ready to stash it away with Colin's baby book, but it will always be a precious reminder of our first few weeks as a family of 3.