On three different occasions this week, I was either hanging out with or running into someone I like and found myself completely incapable of making any kind of interesting conversation. It is like my brain has turned to mush or is working in slow motion.
God, I feel dumb. It isn’t like I am normally the life of the party, but usually I can at least ask appropriate questions. This week, not so much. That is me, staring blankly while more appropriate and interesting conversations go on around me.
I am also having a hard time blogging. I have been grappling with some pretty big questions since L joined our family, but every time I start to write about them I get distracted. Usually by some crap TV show like Top Chef or Shear Genius (or a not-so-crap show like Big Love). I am actually just biding my time tonight waiting for my duel tuner tivo to start taping both Top Chef and Real World Reunited in Las Vegas (wtf?). Where did my brain go????
Of course, I blame the children. They have eaten my brain and left me with only the few shreds that control my basic bodily functions.
Don’t mind me as I stare at the TV with drool stringing off my lower lip.
you didn’t come off as a drooling blob of mush at target the other day. then again, i am also a mother of two.
baby brain.
I got it again after my two youngests moved in.
Really, I didn’t think it would happen with kids who were 10 and 7 but it did!
We didn’t have cable but I spent really stupid amounts of time looking at mindless stuff on the internet and playing with Sims.
Babies/kids not only suck the brains out of you, they suck the energy. So we’ll all just nod knowingly at your self-portrait with the drool. But when you *do* get your brain back, by all means talk about some of the big questions.
I was just talking to my therapist about this today. I want to take an IQ test just to see how far my IQ has fallen since I started raising kids. I’m betting 50 points!
Actually there was a recent study showing that mothers were more cognitively flexible – so you have more brain power, but even more things to focus it on, so each one gets less…
I think Katie hits it on the head. I have blamed a lot of recent things on “baby brain,” but I think it’s more about too many conversations (with husband, co-workers, friends and random people I hardly know) revolving around E. My husband and I tried to have a discussion about the housing market (I work in the mortgage industry) last night, and I kept losing my train of thought and thinking I should be picking up the explosion of toys/books on the floor. It was sad…
Oh thank you for this validation of “baby brain”…I have a 6 month old, and even though she is a pretty good sleeper, I’m still suffering from chronic sleep deprivation which makes me (1) have no short-term memory at all (I have taken to writing EVERYTHING at work down on post-its, otherwise I have found that it is gone for good), and (2) forget the words I am trying to come out with, or, alternately, combine two similar words together (is this called a malapropism?) It’s very, very embarrassing.
I also find that I have almost no interest in geopolitical events since she was born–I mean, I still donate to causes and try to read headlines online everyday, but find I have very little interest in discussing, say, the roots of the current Palestinian conflict. Or even the outcome of Paris’ recent jail sentence. Just. Don’t. Care.
Ah, the joys of having two. This is memory loss is normal. If I remember correctly, you’re also down on your sleep. That impacts memory, too. Be kind to yourself. Your “mush” will turn into funny stories — when you find the right audience.
I know I’m in my right mind… if I could only find it.