Pregnancy Pickle

No, no, no, you haven't changed from an avocado to a pickle in one day. I'm talking about a different kind of pickle: a connundrum, a sticky situation, a tough call, a catch-22, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

And, ever since she's been pregnant, your Mom seems to be finding herself in a lot of them. Pickles, that is.

Take last night for instance:

Your mother climbs in bed, gets all situated and then throws her arms up in the air.

"Ughhhh!" she says.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I'm hungry, but I'm too tired to get out of bed!"

There you have it, a classic pregnancy pickle.

Now, don't worry, this one was readily solved with a little bit of clear thinking:

"What can I get you to eat?"

"I don't know, I'm hungry but nothing sounds good!" she said, displaying yet another oft-recurring pregnancy pickle.

After a moment of silence she decides, hesitantly, "Raisins?"

And then, in a stroke of genius, your father offers, "What about that bag of dried fruit on your night stand?"

"Oh yeah!!!!" she replies as she reaches for the bag of food she left by her bed the last time she got too hungry in bed but was simultaneously too tired to eat.

Pickle averted! Or was it just pickle postponed.

My guess is the latter. These pickles come up a lot.

Some of my favorites:

• "I'm bored but too tired to do anything."
• "I'm tired but too uncomfortable to sleep."
• "I'm full but I'm still hungry."
• "I'm starving, but nothing in the world at all is edible."

Okay, so maybe some of those are made up (or maybe they're not). But, truth be told, none of these pickles are detrimental or unsolvable, and because your Mom is so funny about it, I have no problem offering my hand at helping her out of these pickles whenever I can.

Now when we get to a real pickle like "I want to paint my toenails but I can't seem to find my toes," then we might run into a little bitmore of a problem!