Baby Brain – It’s a Real Thing

TWhat the $#%@ has happened to my brain cells, I mean there’s baby brain and then there’s feeling plain stupid, which is how I often feel. Baby brain has been confirmed as a real thing, yes, it’s real, we’re not going crazy! It’s scientifically proven, something about changes in grey matter. (View video below).

In layman terms (for us mums with slower processing brains out there), pregnancy changes the way a woman’s brain functions, basically it shrinks/ kills our brain cells, making us “temporarily” intellectually challenged. This is said to be similar to going through adolescence. Research suggests that baby brain can last up to two years and perhaps even beyond that.

My Baby Brain

My son is now nearly two, and I’m still suffering from this. I have brain fog like no tomorrow, in conversation I often mix my words, saying a word that may be slightly related to what I mean, but it just doesn’t make sense in sentence. There are days that i can barely even string a sentence together.

I honestly use to be quite sharp, quick witted even, now I feel as dumb as a post. I’m constantly embarrassing myself in conversations with friends, family and my colleagues. There have been days that I have come out of meetings and thought “I should have declined the invite”, or “I shouldn’t have spoken a single word”.

Professionally, I have fear of coming across as dim, and fear losing my colleagues trust in my expertise, and my ability to deliver. Questions and thoughts often running through my mind are: Did I send that email, did I finish that task, oh shit – I forgot to prepare for that meeting, and worse, why can’t I comprehend what’s just been said. Even with these issues, I have worked hard to strategise and deliver everything in plan without a hitch.

In my personal life there have been days where I have done really stupid things such as; a simple task of closing my car window, but instead I reach for the hand break (whilst the car was stationary. I have a countryman with one of those fancy buttons instead of an actual hand-break).  I’ve walked to the supermarket to buy only a few essentials, but instead I buy more than I can carry home because I forgot I didn’t drive. I’ve turned my hair green by accidentally using blue shampoo instead of purple for my highlights. My final example, and one of the worst and most expensive things I have done, is lock myself and my family out of the house. I forgot the house keys on the inside lock as I shut the door behind me, so we couldn’t even get in with my husbands key, a 45 min wait and £100 later, the locksmith broke us back in.

I honestly feel like I’m losing my mind sometimes, and I really want to have my full brain power back!

Knowing that there is a scientifically proven reason why I haven’t right now, gives me hope that some brain training, and ensuring I give myself enough time to repose, may help build my memory back to normal day by day.

Have you suffered from baby brain? let’s chat and share stories in comments below.

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