So you’re going about your day, hopefully working in those easy pregnancy exercises, and you realize you’ve forgotten to go to your doctor’s appointment.  Or you can’t remember where you left your purse, something that has NEVER happened before.

Then the next day you can’t recall whether you bought the milk on your way home from the store….and you hope it’s just pregnancy brain fog.

Because you’ve heard all about it, and it’s real, right?  Yes, ladies, it is REAL.

Pregnancy Brain Fog - You Aren’t Losing It

I even read somewhere that it’s more common in pregnant women carrying girls than boys.  I sympathize then because I have yet to carry girls and I thought it hit me pretty hard.

I would always have issues just recalling common names for things I used every day.  The word would be on the tip of my tongue, but my brain just seemed to be slow in sending it down so I could speak it.  Has that ever happened to anyone else?

Anyway, our hormones are a BIG cause, wreaking havoc on our thoughts and everywhere in our bodies, having fun.  The LACK of sleep during your first and third trimesters is a secondary cause, building on top of all your zapped energy.

Our brain chemistry changes during pregnancy so that we’re more able to bond with our child once they’re born.  Our brain becomes more attuned to our emotional and visual side of its functioning, thus taking away our ability to function well in the analytical things (like speech and brain processes of remembering).

It’s COMPLETELY normal and happens to most pregnant women.  Although I think it seems to last into the post-natal time period of nursing as well, but for different reasons.  Like, our bodies are taking a lot of our nutrients and putting it into our milk for our baby, thus taking our surplus away from ourselves.

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What You Can Do About It

• Deep breaths.  Stressing out over it will only make it worse.
• Write it down.  If you want to be sure you don’t forget something, plaster it on your fridge or mirror, somewhere you know you will see the reminder consistently.
• Supplement.  Up your choline and omega-3s in your diet.  Both support healthy memory function and development for you AND your baby.  Eat more foods like:
  • eggs (including the yolk)
  • beef
  • milk
  • soybeans (in soymilk, tofu, fresh beans, or the oil)
  • citrus fruits
  • nuts
  • fish (only those safe for pregnancy, like salmon)
• Avoid this:  skip taking ginko-biloba, which is supportive of memory function.  It’s NOT safe during pregnancy and should be avoided.
• Laugh at it!  Have some humor in your little idiosyncrasies; it makes for a funny story later on, for sure.

 

During my first pregnancy, I was at work one day, and I worked in a lab at the time.  My coworker was training me on something and I was trying to ask her where I could find a graduated cylinder.  But the word ‘cylinder’ would NOT come out!

 

And I was annoyed.  I was describing it to her and I just got a bunch of blank stares as if I had no idea what I talking about.  But then she made the connection with me and bust up laughing, having experience her own pregnancy brain fog before herself.

 

Also, just realizing the fact that your thoughts may be slower, or you’re forgetting more things more often, and accepting that fact is most likely going to help you through it.

Be open to the fact that what your body is doing is best for your baby and you, even though it might drive you CRAZY sometimes.

Pregnancy brain fog will certainly be another one of those things on the list that you’ll have to remember-and yet you may forget it as well.  Or you may be a lucky one that doesn’t seem to be affected by this so dubbed foggy phenomenon.

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Just remember  . . . or forget

It too shall pass, along with all the rest of your pregnancy symptoms.  People will be patient with you, others will support, and some may even laugh with you.  Embrace this along with your ever changing body too and you’ll find the frustration from it will also let go.

Do those things from the list above that you think will help.  If one doesn’t seem to be making a difference for you, try something else.

Once you get used to something, it will change quickly anyway too after your baby has arrived.  This WILL be a short term thing.

Heck, you could even use it to your advantage, lightly and all in fun of course.  Give yourself a break, because that’s what you deserve anyway.

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Does anyone have any funny stories about their pregnancy brain?  Let me know and we’ll have a laugh.