Pregnancy Brain

According to the daddy-to-be books my husband has been reading, a woman's brain miraculously shrinks during pregnancy. Apparently all brain functions work normally and there is no real noticeable side effect... except for one - memory. This is referred to as "pregnancy brain". At first I was skeptical. I would jokingly throw the shrinking brain excuse in his face when I’d misplace my keys, or repeat stories I already shared with him. But now, I’m starting to give this theory a lot more credit. I’ve always been proud of my elephant-like memory. Before I got pregnant I would always know where the car was parked, and I would never need to write a grocery list, it was all stored away in my impeccable memory. Well, see ya later, Horton! This elephant doesn’t have a clue.

Every single day this week I’ve added more than a few steps to my morning walk by heading out in the opposite direction of where my car is parked. It’s not because I’m trying to get more exercise, it’s because I can’t remember where I left that little PT Cruiser. I live on Miami Beach and I don’t have the luxury of parking my car in the same spot everyday. Most of the time it’s not on the same street, occasionally it’s not on the same block, and sometimes on the weekends it seems like it in a different zip code. The funny thing is that I get to the corner of the street where I’m sure I left my car, and when I realize I’ve done it again, I try to play it off like I meant to go the wrong direction (kind of like when you trip and stumble on the sidewalk, so you do a little jog like everything was intentional). Yeah, so I just stand there for a moment like I was supposed to meet someone on that corner and they’re running late so I head back in the other direction to see if I can find them or something. Lame!

Lost parking spots aren’t my only symptoms. We went grocery shopping the other day and I reluctantly brought a list – I had to make sure to buy all the necessary ingredients for my smoothies and delicious pregnant lady snacks. Well, when we got home I was furious to find that my husband had left the gallon of orange juice in the bottom of the cart at the store when he was packing the car. I distinctly remembered picking up the container, checking the expiration date, and placing it in the cart with my own hands. After some discussion, I realized that an apology was in order. I’d picked out the orange juice and put it into someone else’s cart. D-oh! Smoothies will have to wait.

So, I’m suffering from “pregnancy brain”. I dial wrong numbers, I type like a dyslexic, I forget why I walked into a room, and I have no clue where my car is. Let’s just hope that I remember making this blog entry and don’t try to type it up again tomorrow.