My poor little brain

I've never really been interested in politics. I mean, some stuff really gets me rallied up, like the recent ballot measures about gay marriage. But my husband just made me vote (I use the term "made me" loosely, I semi wanted to do it myself) and there were so many things on this primary ballot that just didn't seem important enough to care about. For example, I had to vote for county superintendent of schools. There were about 10 names on the ballot, none of whom I knew anything about. My husband did a bunch of research about all the issues and sometimes I voted with him, sometimes I voted against him and sometimes I just didn't vote. Meh.

Ok, not a post about politics. The main reason that I don't care about things like politics or social issues right now is that my brain is full. I'm not really stressed out about anything but there are so many things on my mind. I mean, it's all normal new parent type stuff, and like I said, I'm not actually stressed yet, but so much on my brain!

• What I'm eating. I'm still struggling with this. I want to eat good things, but I don't always have them. Blah.
• What I will feed my kid. How will I manage to breast feed when I go back to work? Will I even be able to? And after that, how do I nurture someone who wants to eat good real food? What if my kid has allergies?
• Where will my baby sleep? A crib? A bassinet? Co-sleeping in my bed? I don't function well without enough sleep, can I do this?
• Does continuing to work after he is born really make sense? I've got good benefits and if we ever want to afford a house I should have an income. Also, I'd probably go crazy at home.
• Who will take care of my kid when I'm at work? How will we select a child care facility? Can we afford it?
• Should I be exercising more? I'm having intermittent back pain and I'm starting to gain real weight. Would yoga help that? It's not convenient, is it really worth it?
• How do you change a baby boy's diaper? How frequently is he going to pee in my face? Does elimination communication work well with boys?

There's probably more, but those are the things floating around in my head today. I'm also living with all of the normal adult responsibilities like paying bills and grocery shopping and cleaning. This is a whole new chapter of life and I really wish I'd had more training for it. I wish I had taken Home Economics where I could have learned how to balance a budget (not the math part, the budgeting part) and maybe how to care for a baby. I never even had the sack of flour or egg project. I have zero experience. I took one couple of day course on babysitting put on by the Red Cross when I was 11. That's the entire extent of my childcare knowledge. I've never babysat, I'm the youngest, until Jan 2009 I had never know a baby personally. And all family is far away.

I want to do this, I'm excited by the challenge, but I'm a little overwhelmed. And I don't think my husband is as worried as I am. After all, he's spending his extra research hours looking up things to vote on. I guess divide and conquer is a good strategy.