If anyone has seen my brain, I’d quite like it back.
I met a guy at the playground the other day, and it turned out we knew the same people, so we got talking about stuff. You know, anything and everything; life dreams, vasectomies, money, travel plans, labour stories and breastfeeding. Normally in conversations I’m quite good, if I do say so myself, I keep the flow going, I speak fast but appropriately… and I don’t leave people hanging.
This is not always the case while pregnant. I find listening to myself talk to other people excruciatingly painful, so I can only imagine talking to me is… not that enjoyable at all.
Here’s how a normal conversation would have gone down:
Guy: So, X is holidaying in America at the moment…
Me: Oh right, lucky thing. I love the States. We visited back in 2011. Do you know where he’s visiting there?
{… and the conversation would continue easily.}
Instead, this is how it really works when one {me} has pregnancy brain:
Guy: So, X is holidaying in America at the moment…
Me: Ah, so he’s [come on Chantelle, finish the sentence… what was I trying to say?] holidaying in… [small break while I try and will myself to find the words that I want to say] America… at the moment?
Guy: [Nods head, and then moves to push his kid on the swing because the conversation just went downhill. Fast].
Last night I had dinner with family, and granted I was surviving on just 80 minutes of sleep {broken in two mind you} so my mind was pretty much mush. I got so fed up with willing myself to finish sentences and stay on track that I just up and left the conversation completely. By that I mean I didn’t get up and walk away, I just admitted defeat. “Yeah, I’m not going finish that sentence,” I declared, “My head hurts. Too hard.”
My brain is so… gone that it doesn’t even know who I am anymore. When booking flights to head down to Sydney it just stopped mid-name and decided that I should be called “Chante”, you know like some fancy 90’s R&B singer. I actually typed that my name was Chante and didn’t realise until it was too late. Until I WAS officially Chante. And so I spent my time at the airport hoping that I didn’t get called over the loudspeaker. “Chante, please come to gate 5 and pick up your tickets… and your back-up dancers… and your brain.”
Pregnancy brain. Did you get it? Are you unable to finish sentences… as well?
P.S. Also, I’m an aunty. But that deserves a post of it’s own and more brain power. I’m in love!
Got it badly, and even worse, I fell pregnant again before I fully recovered! Was at my worst when I was reversing out of a friends driveway onto the road one day and said “Don’t freak out because I’m a really good driver, but which side of the road am I meant to be on?!”
I TOTALLY get that. It’s the most simple and obvious things that escape me.
Like brushing my teeth.
Its a little bit more than just pregnancy brain! Darling girl you are TIRED! You have been so busy lately as your little World has opened up into a galaxy, you have terrible sleep patterns,( as do I so I find myself reading your status updates and blog at ungodly hours) you’re the Mumma of a very active little girl and your VERY pregnant! All of that completely and reasonably explains why you have these lapses! The people who matter in your life know you and don’t judge you by the silly stuff you say and as for anyone else….Well as ‘PINK’ would say ” SO WHAT you’re still a Rockstar”!! keep smiling Chante!
I have to say I smile when anyone in Oz {that I know} is awake when I am, so I’m smiling right now.
Thank you for the words of encouragement. xxxx
Definately some in Oz awake now too! It’s the curse of the mum! & my two are both asleep?!?!? *sigh*
What’s with that? I’ve been awake since 2:30am.
May you sneak in a nanna nap at some stage, or a truckload of coffee.
I absolutely understand! i used to get bored listening to myself, and so i just gave up, right there, in the middle of anything… it was exhausting! Both pregnancies i must say.
By the way, that ticket thing, wasn’t it a problem? Here they usually ask to register just as it is in your IDs.
Take care sweetie, you’re almost there… and then will come a whole new different kind of exhaustion.
It wasn’t on the way down here, I’m yet to get back.
Can’t see myself talking my way out of it!
Just look as it as a minor preview/training for when Bubby arrives. I THOUGHT I was tired last year running this little family of four while making another human, until newbie arrived and introduced me to a whole other world of exhaustion. Sleeping through school pickup was my crowning glory and falling asleep on the couch mid-sentence while eating toast and breast feeding would be a close second.
I say Embrace Exhaustion ;D
Oh, it’s been embraced for the past 5 years and shall continue to be so!
I lost my keys and was in a mad panic as I had to pick hubby up from the train station. I was in tears, I thought I should just have a drink, sit down and retrace my steps. I opened the fridge to get the milk and there they were proud as can be! My keys were on the top shelf!! I suffered horrific pregnancy brain. Even not being pregnant now, there is stuff I cannot remember or do without looking like an idiot!!! 🙁
I definitely did. Unfortunately it didn’t pass with the birth of the child. Three weeks after birth I went into town, tried on some clothes and was walking down the road when my hands felt surprisingly empty. I’d forgotten something. What was it? Only my 3 week old happily ensconced in his carseat in the shop’s changing room. Yeah. Mother of the Year!
Ha ha ha. GOLD.
When I was pregnant I volunteered to run a bake table for the Farmer’s Market.
A woman purchased a bunch of baked goods that came to the total of 14.75. She gave me a $20 and I stood there looking at her trying to figure out how much I had to give her back. After a verrry long wait, she told me how much I owed her. This lasted my entire pregnancy. Math left my brain.
That most definitely makes my head hurt. Something I could do quickly normally… but now… ouch!
Ah! You poor thing! I’ve never been pregnant, but I know the feeling of being the conversation killer when I can’t remember what on earth I’m saying!!
I unpacked the whole dishwasher into the fridge. Only stopped when I couldn’t find anywhere for the cutlery……
Lol!
Oh dear. I hope you’re laughing about it now. 😛
Absolutely! I’m only half way through my second pregnancy and already I’ve forgotten names of co-workers I saw every day, put odd items in the fridge or fridge items in the pantry, driven to the wrong place when I was aiming for the supermarket, left a cake on the roof on my car while securing my eldest in his seat and driven off only to have it slide off somewhere (home made and in Tupperware too, I cried!)……and the list goes on. To be honest, I don’t know if I got my brain back after the first! 🙂
Pretty sure I didn’t get all my brain back after the first, and the second stole some too.. I tell my eldest that she’s such a smart cookie she must have pinched and smuggled out some of my brain while she was in there!!
I am hearing you 🙂 These days it happens when I overwhelmingly have too much going on. Enjoy those sweet newborn cuddles, being an Aunty rocks. There is something amazing about watching your sister become a mum xxx
I am still like that almost 5 years & 2 babies in! I swear I must have poured my brain cells down through the umbilical cord & then never recovered them. Chante – that’s hilarious!! 🙂
Sorry to say, I don’t think it stops with the pregnancy either as in the early weeks of my Baby E coming home I sprayed deodorant on my face thinking it was toner not once, but three days in a row, each day knowing that I did it the previous day…duh !! I think we should take these signals as time to slow down and recoup…put your feet up today & be kind to yourself 🙂
Oh lord Chante. This sort of thing is me UN-pregnant, leaving my coffee on the roof of the car and driving off, forgetting to pick up my money in the ATM, warmly saying hello to my friend’s new boyfriend calling him her ex boyfriend’s name. I pity everyone when I eventually get pregnant. Except maybe the person next in line after me at the ATM.
You poor love, its excruciating isn’t it! suppose though that it is cold comfort for us all to say that we felt it too (and beyond the bump) especially when you are right in there. Give yourself a break, its for a good cause, and just think of all you can get out of using this (even when you are back to your old self) – and your old self WILL return!!! btw I made those honey cookie things you posted the other night, burned the first batch cause I got distracted, but because they were so flamin’ quick and easy whipped up another set, and the family devoured them like vultures! So you MUST be doing something right! Good on you and have a great day. xx
i used to do it all m,the time. with my 1st 1 i was working in an aged care hostel and we were in the dining room at breaky time. 1 of the residents asked me for another cup of tea. by the time i walked from her table to the kitchen i had no idea why i was there! i went shopping for the 1st time after my girl was born on my own and i was happily wandering round the shops and then had a freak out cos i thought id forgotten her and left her somewhere before i finally realised she was actually at home with her dad! with all 3 kids i would regularly walk into a room and then just stop and stare blankly while ill tried to remember what id gone in for.
I can’t help but wonder why it is forever known as pregnancy brain?! I get it. I’m not pregnant. Never have been.
Just a thought.
Lol soooo understand! I forgot my son who was about 15mths old and had been walking for 3 months already (I was about 8weeks pregnant) could walk! I put him down after his bath and he took some steps. My hubby was there and I was sooo excited to see him walk, hubby was like ‘ahh you remember these arent his first steps right?!” I also wore one high heal and one flat into a shop and wondered why walking felt funny. A girl I used to work with thought it was so funny, I remember her saying “its so funny seeing you who is so articulate and onto it forget what you are saying mid sentence’. Horrible pregnancy (mother) ailment.
I could never remember my PIN numbers and passwords. I would change them and then forget the new ones. I took me having a second child to realise that it was a pregnancy symptom.
During one of my pregnancies I went to the grocery store and shopping at the mall. I purchased items from 5 different stores only to find when I got home that I had left the items I purchased from three of the stores sitting on there counters, including the meat from the butcher. That day I also put my keys in the freezer. That was a bad day. It took forever to find them. It shall pass in time.
Is Chante going on tour anytime soon? Would love to pick up some tix 😉
You’ll be the first to know! 😛
I left my car door open overnight, in the rain. I was sure someone had broken into my car. Nope, just pregnancy taking over my brain.
My youngest is 4 and I still struggle putting a sentence together when I’m around adults! I don’t think pregnancy brain ever left me! :o)
I suffered with it with all three of my pregnancies and now have had the “pleasure” of seeing both my daughters suffer the same fate. My biggie was when I was getting petrol one day and couldn’t work out how to get the key out of the ignition to unlock the petrol cap, the attendant came over and said to me (almost in tears )…here love let me do it for you I understand your brain isn’t working too well, my wife is pregnant too!!!
I always thought that tales of Baby Brain were grossly eggarated, those things couldn’t possibly happen – til i had two babies 10mths apart in age. Somewhere amidst that 22 months of preg/birth/preg, my brain fell out.
I know exactly what you mean about the conversations, i get two words in, pause, then make some undecipherable sound and shake my head. Attempted conversation aborted lol. Car keys in biscuit tins, clean clothes in the chest freezer, collection notices because i forgot about bills… Dialled 000 because someone stole my car, only to remember i walked to the shop 🙁
Three & a half years post-baby I’m still mourning the loss of my ability to spit out a coherent sentence. I wonder if it will ever come back.
Oh yes – I can totally relate! I went out for dinner with some girlfriends and found it so difficult to string a sentence together, so I just gave up in the end. I think it’s all down to sleep deprivation, and I later found out I had virtually no iron – so my brain wasn’t getting any oxygen!! I hope you get some much needed sleep before your next bubba arrives. Our 2 year old has only just started sleeping through the night, and I can’t believe what a MASSIVE difference a decent night’s sleep makes….. for us and for her. Our next bubba is due around the same time as yours 🙂 A x x x