Lately I’ve been doing a lot of this:

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And this:

It’s not the end of the world – just some spoiled milk and minutes lost searching, but other brain farts are a little more problematic. Last week, at Open House, a parent pulled me into the hall to look at my bulletin board. To my mortification, she pointed out an inappropriate example of student work that I had inadvertently posted. Thanks, teenagers, for taking advantage of my fogginess.

Poor Mr. Tricycle is suffering, too. I’ll admit that I can be easily distracted when I’m not pregnant, but it seems the problem has magnified during the last few weeks. For example, he’ll ask me to grab his phone off the dresser, but by the time I get downstairs, I’ve got a load of laundry, and an empty water glass, but no phone.

What gives? Is pregnancy brain a real thing? I’d love an excuse for all my recent slips.

Luckily, a number of different studies seem to suggest that memory loss during pregnancy is a real thing. One study compared pregnant women’s ability to recall a paragraph of material with non-pregnant women at different points in time. The researchers found that a significant decrease in recall occurred among the pregnant women between the second and third trimester, though they couldn’t attribute the decline to depression, anxiety, sleep deprivation, or other physical changes associated with pregnancy. A more recent study suggests that pregnant women suffer from a loss of spatial memory – the kind of memory that tells me where I left my cell phone, or where I dropped my keys. This study attributed the memory deficit to high levels of sex hormones negatively impacting neurons in the hippocampus region of the brain.

Although it helps to know there’s some scientific evidence for all my fogginess, it doesn’t make the problem go away. I’ve resorted to making all kinds of lists, and for the first time ever, setting up my iPhone to deliver reminders about important tasks. I’m asking colleagues to double check some of my work, and reminding myself that forgetting things when I come downstairs just means I get more exercise.

Did you notice a difference in memory and cognitive ability during pregnancy? Any tips for to help my brain survive the next nine weeks?