They say when you are pregnant you become very forgetful and pretty much lose your mind. This is called “placenta brain”. Scientifically they say it happens because the brain shrinks 3-5% during pregnancy, or there is the theory that it is caused by hormones during pregnancy. Others believe that it is just a period of time where the mother-to-be is reflecting inward and the introspection and problem solving of the future is what causes the mental fuzziness. Huh? No one can really tell you what causes it, but it really does happen. Ask every pregnant woman who is losing her mind, or screwing up dinner. Like ME, for example…
I’ve had a few “placenta brain” moments in the few months since I became pregnant. For the most part, nothing too major or too embarrassing, until tonight. The family was hungry, so I decided we would have pork loin for dinner and I would cook it on the grill. Knowing that Maddie wasn’t getting off work until 5, but Dylan was going to a party at 6, I had it timed out perfectly. The pork loins usually take about 30 minutes to grill, depending on the size. At 5:00 I put them on the grill. I had preheated the grill so it was ready to go. I figured that by 5:30, we would sit down to eat and still have time to get Dylan to his party.
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| Here I am, looking confused! |
At about 5:10 I went out to flip the meat. They were looking really good. I came back inside and decided to give them a few more minutes before I started the potatoes and corn. I went out again with the meat thermometer at 5:15 to see how well they were cooking. They were at 43 degrees. I knew I had to get them to 165 degrees and, since I had the grill on medium, I decided to turn it up too high to help cook them a little quicker. In the back of my mind I thought they were cooking really slowly but I just figured maybe they were thicker than usual. I came in the house and told Duffy that maybe Dylan wouldn’t be eating with us because they were cooking so slowly.
Another 15 minutes past and I checked on the pork loin again. This time they were at 56 degrees. By now it was 5:30 and I had to take Dylan to Caseland for the party. I told him I didn’t know how we would time it out. Duffy told me to turn the grill on low and they’d be ready when we got home. So I did.
We took Dylan to his party and I told Maddie to just keep her eye on the grill. We get home from dropping Dylan off and went out to check on the meat. YIKES! They had shrunk to about ¾ of their original size and they looked like patent leather, black boots. I put the thermometer in and they were still only 96 degrees! What the heck? For the life of me, I could not figure out why the internal temperature was so low but on the outside they were clearly done. I’ve grilled pork loin a million times before and this had never happen to me.
Now for the truly horrible part. It was about then that my husband, who is known for his understanding nature, came out and looked at what was happening on the grill. Duffy then turned to me with a little smirk, shaking his head, and said, “Honey, you’re reading the thermometer in Celsius.”
We just started laughing. I have never done that before. In fact, I always double check the thermometer to make sure it is on Fahrenheit. But, this time, it didn’t even cross my “placenta brain”. Needless to say, the pork loin was very well done. The actual reading was 206 degrees FAHRENHEIT and the poor things looked like beef jerky!
We ended up piling into the car and heading down to Rib Crib for dinner. So there you go, my experience with placenta brain. We may have a long 21 weeks ahead of us! I think I’ll stick with hot dogs and sandwiches.
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| Yes, friends, that says 205.7 degrees FARENHEIT! |
