Anyone else just completely lose their damn mind after having a baby? I swear, I used to be so on top of everything – deadlines, client meetings, remembering to eat a goddamn meal. Now, I’m lucky if I remember to put on two matching socks, let alone actually *eat* something. The gig life already felt like I was juggling flaming chainsaws, but add a tiny human who depends on me for survival and it's a whole new level of chaos. And the absolute LACK of a steady income or, like, sick days? That’s just a laugh riot when you’re dealing with mastitis and a newborn who thinks 3 AM is prime time for a party. Today was a special kind of hell. First day back on a big project, a new client who everyone's been bending over backward for. So, obviously, I wanted to make a good impression. Pulled out the silk blouse I've been saving for "important" meetings – you know, the one that makes me feel like I’m not just running on fumes and lukewarm coffee. Got through the morning, feeling pretty decent actually, like maybe I still had a semblance of my pre-baby brain. Then, in the afternoon, during the BIG meeting, presenting the first draft of the campaign strategy – I looked down. And there they were. Two perfect, dark, wet circles blooming right on the front of my expensive silk, expanding slowly, inevitably, like a goddamn science experiment. I had forgotten my nursing pads. FORGOTTEN THEM. Like it’s not the one thing that stands between me and public humiliation multiple times a day. The ANGER that just pulsed through me – at myself, for being so scatterbrained, at my boobs for having absolutely no chill, at this whole stupid system that expects you to seamlessly transition back into "productive" work after literally creating and sustaining a human life. I just wanted to scream, or maybe just cry into the nearest throw pillow. The client was nodding, my supervisor was smiling, and I was just sitting there, mortified, trying to subtly cross my arms without looking completely insane. How do you even recover from that? Am I the only one whose brain just evaporated the second they became a mother? This whole "having it all" thing feels like a cruel joke someone played on all of us, and I’m definitely not laughing.