A few weeks ago, my “check tire” light came on for the first time. Actually, I had no idea what the light was. It’s symbol was exactly this: (!) . Does that look like a “check tire” light to you? I was determined to figure it out by myself, so I pulled over, got out my manual, and after quite a bit of searching, found that it meant my tire pressure was low.

As soon as I finally found the explanation for the mysterious signal, of course, another set of lights came on that was actually a visual, showing that it was my back left tire. That sure would have been useful a few minutes earlier.

Still determined to be self-sufficient, I got out and checked it, and it didn’t look low, so I drove to the nearest gas station (slowly) and a) checked my pressure, b) compared it to what my door said it should be, and c) aired it up to appropriate levels all by myself!!!

I was so proud. I of course immediately text messaged Chris with my successes, and he was proud of me also!

Fast forward to last week: While Chris was in the car over the weekend, the lights came on again. Indication: slow leak (yes, I came up with this conclusion ON MY OWN!!). So Chris found where there was a nail in the tire and showed it to me, and asked me if I could use my super-car-powers again and get it plugged one day during the week before we left for the beach. I eagerly agreed, hoping to show my true self-sufficiency! So I was careful to note that the nail was right above the second “o” in Goodyear, so I was all prepared to fix my problem.

The very next day, I drove to Express Oil Change, and confidently told the service man that “I had a nail in my back left tire right above the second “o” in Goodyear.” I was really hoping to impress him. It worked – I got a “wow, you have a good memory, ma’am!!”.

So he then gives me these long winded instructions about pulling out wide and pulling into one of the bays. I was aggravated, because he obviously assumed that I was a woman driver, giving me instructions on how to park. Hmph. And I thought I impressed him.

So I pulled in perfectly, only to get a disappointed look from him as he and made a circular motion with his hand. Oh. He was giving me long winded instructions because he wanted me to BACK in the bay. I was embarrassed that I lived up to his “woman driver” expectations.

So then I was flustered because I knew what he was thinking, and forgot to put it in park when he got the tire to where he wanted it, and so had to back up and go forward again to get the tire right.

Ugh. So much for impressing him with my self-sufficiency and ability to follow instructions.

This all made me think of all of my recent driving “occurrences”, for lack of a nicer word. I won’t even link them all into this post – I don’t want to relive them. I really used to be a very good driver. It seems like it has all gone downhill since I had a baby, so I’m wondering if it could be one of those lingering after-effects of childbirth.

You know how some people’s body chemistry changes after they have babies? I’m not talking about changes in the shape of the belly area, which I am convinced never really goes back to “normal” no matter how much weight is lost (at least I tell myself that to feel better). I’m talking about physiological changes. For instance: I had terrible allergy problems until I got pregnant, and they’ve never come back.

Could my bad driving be another result of childbirth?

Anyone else had any weird changes after childbirth?

8 thoughts on “Thoughts on self-sufficiency, bad driving, and childbirth side effects

  1. I’m VERY impressed with your self-sufficiency! I get grumpy when I have to put my own gas in my car. It just seems like a boy job. Airing up the tires would most definitely be delegated to J.C..

    While I was pregnant with Eli, I kept getting constant ear infections (or what felt like ear infections). They would last for about a week, then go away for a couple of days, then would switch to the other ear and the cycle would start over agan… This came on almost immediately after I got pregnant, and although they’ve drastically reduced in frequency since I’ve had him, I am still getting them sometimes. Weird, huh? I suppose I should go see a doc to find out what’s going on.

  2. I have to applaud your self-sufficiency as well. I can check the oil in my car by myself but I never quite mastered the tire pressure thing. I don’t have any kids, so I don’t have any personal after effects of child birth, but I have a friend who used to have a photographic memory and she lost it during her pregnancy and has never gotten it back.

  3. Ummm yeah.
    I used to sing. My range and voice strength completely changed with my first pregnancy.
    My shoe size actually went up too!
    My brain is constantly trying to catch up with me.
    Is that what you mean?

  4. Kudos to you for doing the tire-pressure thing. Not me. I have a fear of balloons or anything that has the potential to pop when filled up with air. Because of that, there is no way I could handle filling a tire up with air.

    With this last pregnancy, my hair went from straight to curly – or at least wavy – much to my delight!
    My shoe size went up with my second pregnancy, but only by a little bit, so I am sort of between sizes. A 7 and 1//2 is a little too tight, but an 8 is too big.
    My brain definitely lost some power with each pregnancy.
    I now love squash and do not like red meat nearly as much as I used to.
    Those are all the ones I can think of at the moment.

  5. ha! nice car post…I’ll comment on that ssince i cant contribute to the childbirth section…you know, our fathers both work with cars, so one wold think that we would be able to do “car stuff”…I AM quite impressed with your handling of the tire situation! I refuse to even check my own oil…and I HATE to pump gas…thats why I have a Dad that does car stuff and a brother who is a mechanic! :)

  6. ha! nice car post…I’ll comment on that ssince i cant contribute to the childbirth section…you know, our fathers both work with cars, so one wold think that we would be able to do “car stuff”…I AM quite impressed with your handling of the tire situation! I refuse to even check my own oil…and I HATE to pump gas…thats why I have a Dad that does car stuff and a brother who is a mechanic! :)

  7. ha! nice car post…I’ll comment on that ssince i cant contribute to the childbirth section…you know, our fathers both work with cars, so one wold think that we would be able to do “car stuff”…I AM quite impressed with your handling of the tire situation! I refuse to even check my own oil…and I HATE to pump gas…thats why I have a Dad that does car stuff and a brother who is a mechanic! :)

  8. ha! nice car post…I’ll comment on that ssince i cant contribute to the childbirth section…you know, our fathers both work with cars, so one wold think that we would be able to do “car stuff”…I AM quite impressed with your handling of the tire situation! I refuse to even check my own oil…and I HATE to pump gas…thats why I have a Dad that does car stuff and a brother who is a mechanic! :)

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