Mom Brain is Real… and It’s Scary!
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Most definitely have. Gone as a far as mixing up kids names. Or just having the short term memory loss even adhd.
Also, I call my baby "kitten" instead of the cats and the cats "kiddo". Kept calling my new baby a boy in the hospital (she's not) and really confusing the hospital staff.
@Miriam this makes sense actually. My little boy still wakes up to feed. Could be the sleep deprivation.
@Monica Its really crazy how we forget something as simple as “names”. I forgot my DOB at an appointment thank God hubby was there to help.
I was really bad after my first. Less so after my second. I’m not sure if it’s because I found that transition easier, because my brain was already rewired into a ‘mum brain’ (it’s a real thing- the brain shrinks during pregnancy and then makes lots of new pathways) or if it was because I was given a high dose of thiamine in my second pregnancy and had HG in both pregnancies but less treatment in the first. Apparently an untreated thiamine deficiency can affect you cognitively… second pregnancy I had a really bad deficiency but then got treated and my memory was much better after second birth… who knows…
The sleep deprivation thing makes sense, because I definitely experience mum brain!! But not to this degree of forgetting my name/DOB etc, but I cosleep and EBF so don’t physically have to get up when baby wakes up in the night so not AS sleep deprived as those who maybe get out of bed multiple times a night xx
Yep! I’ve been there too, lack of sleep makes it so much worse for me 🥲 constantly have to ask my fiancé how old I am 😂
The forgetting your name & date of birth would be concerning. I’ve mixed up my social security number & childhood home phone number, but that’s all. Do you maybe have ADHD? It gets better in waves. My own son, who’s turning 5 in a few weeks, will call me out. He’ll say “you forgot..xyz” lol. Hang in there.
I found this too. My children are 2 and 4 now and my brain is definitely better but nothing like it was. I used to be able to do the food shopping without a list - I could easily recall anything I’d written on it from a few days previously. Now - not a chance! I do miss my pre-kid brain sometimes
@Eva That makes a lot of sense! The combination of experience, biological changes, and medical treatment could all have played a role in how you felt after each pregnancy. It’s fascinating how the brain adapts during motherhood—there’s so much we’re still learning about it. I’m glad you got the treatment you needed the second time around!
@Samira I co-sleep with my baby too and just feed on the bed as well! It definitely makes night wakings easier since I don’t have to fully wake up or get out of bed. I still feel the effects of sleep deprivation sometimes.
@Anonn 🤣 makes both of us. I am hoping that it gets better for us.
@Katie Yeah, I don’t have ADHD, but the level of forgetfulness definitely threw me off! It’s reassuring to hear it gets better in waves. That’s so cute that your son calls you out on it—kids have such sharp memories! I guess we just have to ride it out and hope for more restful days ahead. Thanks for the encouragement!
At 5 weeks pp I forgot my sons name in a mum+baby yoga class when we were introducing ourselves to the room. Super awkward that a number of my NCT group were there to witness my forgetfulness 🫠
Are you still sleep deprived? Not getting enough sleep contributes a lot. If you are still getting interrupted sleep you may find things get better once baby starts sleeping through. Some of it sticks around though. It's different for different people but your brain gets rewired a bit. My midwife said something that was interesting. Was that it's a side effect of hyper focus on baby essentially that you need to be able to not keep track of other things that happen to keep baby alive.