Pregnancy Brain

When I was a teenager watching my older sisters experience their own pregnancy woes, I vowed that I would not allow myself to fall into the cliche trap of "pregnancy brain". This is the mythological concept that pregnant women tend to be more forgetful, absent-minded, and scatterbrained than usual. One of my sisters theorized that because your body is working so hard to grow a baby, your brain is distracted with the more important subconscious things, and less inclined to stay tuned to your conscious thoughts. That just sounds like lazy thinking and a bunch of excuses, thought my teenage-year-old self. Fast forward to now.

On Saturday I stopped by BYU after book club to drop off a bunch of old textbooks. I was only gone for 20 minutes but when I got back to my car I saw that my driver's side door had been left open. I was so distracted by getting the books out of the trunk, I forgot to shut the darn thing. Then today I was at the grocery store and I was so concerned with reading my gift receipt for a present that I left half my groceries with the cashier. He had to call me back so I could collect them. It was a proud moment.

You guys, I'm starting to worry that I have pregnancy brain. So I did a little research and this article made me feel a little better. It stressed that pregnant women can be a little forgetful and are prone to distraction because their babies are ALWAYS on their minds (true story), but that when they are focused on a single task, they are capable of the same cognitive function as non-pregnant women. So I haven't lost my brain, but when I lose focus, I immediately forget whatever it was I was doing before I focused on the new distraction. Add to that the fact that Scarlet plays around enough to constantly remind me of her presence, and it makes sense that I can't always remember to turn the stove on when I'm making dinner (Josh figured that one out) or that I keep forgetting to take the butter out of the microwave at 7 seconds, not 30 (seriously, that happened twice just today). You'd never know that I graduated from college, that I'm a professional editor, or that I'm in a graduate program. All you can tell by watching me is that I keep losing my cell phone and I can't remember why I walk into certain rooms.