As I shared in this post last September, I definitely experienced “pregnesia” or “pregnant brain” while pregnant — and was always told, “Just wait, it gets worse!”

Being the type of person I am — one who thrives on her impeccable memory of the minute details from a Tuesday in August fifteen years ago where so-and-so told me this-or-that — it’s quite surprising to me that mommybrain has taken hold on me the way it has.

Seriously. I’m a mess.

I can remember long-term things, no problem … but in the shower, I’ll often re-conditioner my hair ‘just in case’ I hadn’t already. At work, I’ll get distracts and type the same email twice — forcing me to check my ‘sent’ box before I click ‘send’ for, you know, the second time. I’ll put a document aside and then “lose it” … only to find it exactly where I left it two minutes prior. I’ll make breakfast before work … and leave it on the counter. I’ll pay a bill, and then go to re-pay it (I think that is how I ended up paying my student loan — inadvertently–four months worth of payments at once). I’ll hang up the phone and not be able to remember with whom I was just speaking. No joke.

It’s like I’m doing double-duty and getting half the results … and it’s driving me mad. I can’t keep myself together at home or at work, and it has to stop.

My most recent bout was this past Thursday. I was planning a pretty important work event in Chicago and when I got to the hotel I pulled my little Honda Civic up to the valet. Well, as I was at the check-in counter, the valet came running up. “Miss, your keys?!” Sure enough, the all-important keys to PARK said Civic were in my hand.

<<facepalm>>

Yes, I’ve become THAT scatterbrained.

And I’m not alone. Many of my new mom (and old mom!) friends say their brains turned to mush when they had children. It’s like our minds — which already went a mile a minute pre-children — are now going two miles a minute. We are thinking for ourselves, our children, our families, our pets, our jobs, you name it and it’s on our minds.

I write notes, journal, play lots of Words with Friends 🙂 — everything I can to keep my brain functioning at its peak … and yet I’m still a hot mess when it comes to my memory.

Naturally, my husband –who is very much a hands-on parent — remains completely unscathed. Why is that, that men don’t seem to experience this memory lapse when they become fathers? Someone please explain this for me.  Is it because we, inevitably, are the primary caretakers? Does it matter if it’s a single dad? Or what about a home with two dads? I’d love to see some study on this to see why it seems it’s just women afflicted — or maybe not?

Bottom line is, with my brain in such disarray, I don’t feel like I am myself … and I miss the “me” that, well, had it together (or at least thought I did!)

How about you? Did you/do you suffer from mommybrain and what are some tips you have for managing it? Please–welcoming any and all tips!