Damn! She Dumb!!

Ahh pregnancy brain! I heard about this a few years ago while watching "How I Met Your Mother" when Lily was pregnant. I really truly thought it was just a joke for TV purposes. Especially since i don't remember dealing with it when i was pregnant with my son. But apparently, it's a real thing. And it's alive and well!!

For those of you who don't know what this strange phenomenon is, let me fill ya in! The normal, nonscientific definition is basically feeling dim and more forgetful than normal. You forget things more often, things you know well. Like words, your to-do list, names of people and things. Supposedly there's a correlation to not getting enough sleep, but i'm sleeping fine, so i call BS on that! The real explanation of it is this, according to WebMD: "There is 15 to 40 times more progesterone and estrogen marinating the brain during pregnancy," Louann Brizendine, MD, director of the Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco, says. "And these hormones affect all kinds of neurons in the brain. By the time the woman delivers, there are huge surges of oxytocin that cause the uterus to contract and the body to produce milk -- and they also affect the brain circuits". See. So it does exist.

It took me a few weeks of dealing with it before i finally figured out what the hell was wrong with me. Several weeks of forgetting simple things. Like words. There's a lot of hemming and ha-ing and snapping my fingers now trying to remember things i want to say. It's very frustrating!! It doesn't help when people think they know what i'm trying to say and keep interrupting my very slow train of thought, because a conversation is taking too long, and so they try to guess what word I'm looking for, yet get it wrong and try to guess again. By the time they guess the wrong word 2 or 3 times, i throw in the towel on what it is i'm trying to say. Because by then, with all their guessing, i've forgotten what it was all together!!

Other things are a bit bigger...like forgetting to turn the oven on before cooking dinner. Then forgetting to turn the oven off after i was done cooking dinner!! Not cool! Now every time I'm in the kitchen i have to go over the list of things i just did in case i turned something on when i shouldn't have or didn't want to. One night i had pulled a glass baking dish out of the oven and put it on the stove top to cool. I had a small pot on the burner behind it with veggies in it, and turned on the wrong burner! I shouldn't have to tell anyone that glass on the stove top doesn't work and should never be done! Thank goodness Brooks went into the kitchen before it exploded!! That would have ruined dinner pretty quick i'd say!! Other things aren't so scary. There were a few times where i couldn't remember where the milk went...the cupboard or the fridge? Seriously! I stood in the kitchen holding the gallon of milk trying to figure it out. The other day we were getting ready to leave for the day and i was putting my shoes on. I got a sock and shoe on my left, and put just the shoe on the right. I starred at my feet for several minutes trying to figure out what was different about them. I did manage to figure it out though, so i didn't look like a total tool out in public!!

Last week when i went to see my doc we were chatting about tests we had done, vs the ones we hadn't. She had sent us to a further specialist; a high risk prenatal doc who had asked me if i had had some test done. By the time i got to my regular docs office a few weeks later, i couldn't remember for the life of me what test it was, what it looked for or how many weeks i needed to be to have it done. I apologized to her for forgetting and she shook her head and said, "No!! It's fine! Your pregnant. We need to just give you a note pad for things." Thankfully there was only one left to do, and that was it.

Here's a very funny and very true story...the other day (last Friday) i was in Target. I was taking my time, and taking great care to get everything i needed to, so i wouldn't have to come back. Lists have become my best friends lately. On that list i had body wash. I wanted a different scent than what i just emptied, so i had to of course, smell them. I can't buy body washes, soaps, or shampoos without smelling them. I've had the unfortunate displeasure of getting shampoos that i hated the smell of, and that made me gag and of course i was stuck with them. And products are just too expensive nowadays not to! SO, there i was down the soap isle in Target looking for my favorite brand. I found it, and found the selection of scents. I plucked one off the shelf, popped open the lid, and took a big whiff...or tried. It had exploded in my face. My schnoz was covered in lavendery scented body wash. In public. I wiped my nose off (there was quite a wad of body wash on my nose actually) and tried to whiff again. Oops. More body wash on my nose. Lets try again. This went on for several tries. By the time i had gotten all of the body wash off my nose, my hand was covered in it. Forgetting that it was indeed SOAP, and not freakin lotion, i started rubbing my hands together trying to get it to "soak in". But again...SOAP!! Hello! By that time i realized it was soap and not lotion, so down a few isles i went to the isle with the travel sized stuff in it. I found some baby wipes. While in that isle, i opened the wipes (don't worry...i paid for them), and wiped off my hands. Or so i thought. SOAP + WET WIPES = SUDS! EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!! Yes ladies and gents, though i had very clean yummy smelling hands, there were actual suds and a lot of FOAM on my hands by this point. Can you picture this? A cute pregnant woman, down a Target isle with sudsy foam all over her hands in the middle of the store!! All i could do was laugh!! I was laughing so hard by the time i got myself all cleaned up that there were tears! I'm sure i looked like a lunatic.

Next on my list that day was a little something for Brooks for Valentine's Day. We had talked about not doing anything big since we have a baby coming and that is much more important. But this would be our last as a couple. So i felt i really wanted to do something. Just a little something. I found him a T-shirt that i thought was hilarious. I put it in the cart along with a ridiculously expensive card (when the hell did cards get so blood expensive?! $6?! If i had realized that, i would have taken pics of what it said, and made my own), and went to find a gift bag. Down the gift bag isle i kept obsessing if i really wanted to get that shirt for him. I decided i didn't and went to put it back. Onto the shelf. I walked away. Go back. In the cart. Walked away. Back to the shelf. Walked away. This went on for about 3 or 4 minutes. In the cart, out of the cart. In the cart, out of the cart. DAMMIT WOMAN!  MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!!! Finally, it landed in the cart and i darted to the checkout before i changed my mind again.

It's a good thing we have a name for our baby already picked out!! She could've wound up with something Kardashian-esq, like Kartier or Money. Oy!!

Pregnancy brain. It's alive and well!!  







Source: http://www.webmd.com/baby/features/memory_lapse_it_may_be_pregnancy_brain