It all started with a vegemite sandwich.

medium_5424947078You can’t please me. You just can’t.

Up until a few months ago, the early morning was my ‘me’ time. It was precious. Hubby and Lacey liked to sleep in, regularly until 9am… and I’d get up before the sun and do my thing, usually work. It just meant that I could get things done in a big block, and not be disturbed. It also meant that I didn’t feel guilty because I wasn’t doing work when I should be playing with Lacey, or, you know, talking to my husband.

But things changed, Lacey got into a nice routine and started going to bed really early, sleeping well and changing our lives. You know, good stuff. She’s also going through a phase where she doesn’t want to be without me, so when I wake {even if it’s at 3am} she’ll wake not long after and join me. So my ‘me’ time has quickly become ‘us’ time.

Not long after Lacey wakes, she’ll ask for toast. And by toast she means a sandwich. Sometimes when I’m bleary-eyed and tired, I assume she actually wants toast and I’ll put the bread in the toaster and… cook it.

Cue hysteria.

And then I go back to making the sandwich. Now a normal sandwich will not do. Oh no. It needs to be done just so. It needs to be without crust, and it needs to be folded in half, not cut in half. It’s my fault. I started this fancy sandwich business. If she really had her way, they’d be cut into fairies and unicorns and sprinkled with magic dust. But I have to draw the line somewhere.

So day after day of the sandwich caper, which is a totally normal request by a child of their parent, I went loco. If you’ve been pregnant before you might remember that it happens. Somewhere between conception and birth, you lose your mind. All rational disappears, and is replaced with a little crazy. They don’t put that in the books though, do they?

I marched into the bedroom, woke a sleeping Hubby and grizzled, “I can’t do the sandwich anymore. I can’t do the folding of the bread and the crusts. I can’t. You get up and do it. YOU DO THE SANDWICH. I’M DONE.”

And I cried. Pathetic, sobbing tears over a vegemite sandwich. Lacey was unaware. Hungry, but unaware.

I went back out and made the sandwich. Butter on both pieces of bread, a smear of vegemite, crusts removed, folded in half and delivered on a pink plate. Yes, I’d woken Hubby to make the sandwiches, but then I felt bad for waking him, and made the sandwich myself. Because that’s how the crazy works.

I then slowly walked back into the bedroom, where Hubby was getting dressed and ready to take on sandwich-duty. I flopped onto the bed {as best a pregnant woman can}. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I really don’t care about the sandwich-making. I’m just… weird.”

“I know,” he comforted me, “You went through this last time. I remember.”

I didn’t remember. But he did. Of course, he did.

Do you remember the pregnancy crazy? Have you been through it? Or experienced someone else going loco? Also, how do you like your sandwiches – crusts on or off?

photo credit: i.am.rebecca via photopin cc

22 thoughts on “It all started with a vegemite sandwich.”

  1. I totally remember going crazy over silly things actually still do when I’m sleep deprived. Mine usually involve mess…. I find myself screaming I’m bit the cleaning lady why can’t you take your bowl to the sink, pick up that towel, out your shoes in your bedroom etc etc and than the same as you I feel guilty and I go and do it. It’s just hormones and we all go through it, maybe you could teach Lacey to make her own sandwich in the morning she would probably love the independence of doing it herself. ( though then you might get crazy about the mess she makes) hope you feel better soon. X bee

    • Oh, now that’s smart thinking.

      I think when the baby is here I’ll make a packed lunch the night before into a lunchbox and then she can go and get it herself, in case I’m feeding or something.

      I get cranky about the cleaning too. Shane took Lacey away last night to his mum’s house so I could just get it all done. x

  2. It was 33 years ago….but I still cringe when I think of it. We were invited out to pizza with a group of our family. My parents ordered and paid for all the pizzas. Not a single pizza had cooked tomato slices on top. I cried. Everyone looked at me like I was completely selfish and ungrateful. Which of course made me cry more. Somehow it was all my husbands fault.{I was so angry at him} I don’t know what happened to me back then. I had never behaved like that before. I don’t think I ever ate a tomato before I was pregnant. Now I put tomato on most sandwiches…or just a tomato sandwich. Oh, and it must be cut into 4 small triangles 🙂

  3. Well…I have never been pregnant but many of my friends have and boy oh boy. I had a cousin who almost cursed me out because I didn’t pull over in time to get her a bag of Doritos (after she had told me maybe 5 minutes before that she wanted them) and when she got them she ate about 5 of them, put the bag down then fell asleep in the car.

    I like my sandwiches with the crust on but I can’t tolerate vegemite. I tried it once when I was in Australia and just couldn’t eat it. Hope you are feeling better!

      • Once my little cousin was born I forgot all about it (well, except to tell this story). My cousin let me pick Jessica’s middle name (Lauren, I still love that name) and Jessica was my little princess so the Doritos thing wasn’t even an issue.

  4. It is so hard to feel crazy and some what out of control. My worst phase last pregnancy was not wanting to talk to anyone outside my immediate family for about 4 weeks before having the baby. Weird. Lucky we have kind and caring people around to tolerate all this craziness.

  5. Oh Chantelle you make me laugh!!! Honey, it really doesn’t get any better as they grow and change either. I get so frustrated picking up after 3 boys (that includes the husband) and doing things for them that I know they can do, but I do it anyway…. And then there’s “baby brain”, you know…. When you forget the most simple of things that before you got pregnant wouldn’t have be a issue! That is always going to stay with you… Pregnancy is a wonderful time in your life and although the little things might make you feel crazy and out of control it’s always nice to know that someone “remembers” and understands that your not really this neurotic person they married!

  6. Ha ha! I am hearing you. ….. So much so that this weeks Blog post is being titled “Building the bridge to crazy town”. Stay tuned…. Lucie x

  7. on the way home from our ante-natal class the other day (a day in which i’d been seriously thirsty all day long), i saw a 7-11 up ahead and told my hubby that i wanted a slurpee – and i was serious. He didn’t stop. I was soooooo mad at him. It’s like he thinks he’s got it hard being the partner of a pregnant person! pfftttt!

    • Does he not realise how hard it is to be pregnant and how sometimes a slurpee can make everything better?

      To be honest, something similar happened the other week. I mentioned that I might like something in particular for lunch. I can’t remember what it was, probably chips and gravy or something indulgent. Hubby didn’t even consider the idea. He just drove home and I had to make a sandwich. What the?

  8. I’m also the sole special sandwich maker in our house. It’s an important, but relentless responsibility day in & day out. Sigh…

  9. You are a fabulous mom!! Lacey know what she wants and you make it for her. She’ll remember it forever and more than likely will cut the crust off sandwiches for her kids too. 😉 And … I cut the crust off for my grands. 🙂 I’ve never tasted vegemite but David tells me its huge down your way. 😉

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