During my pregnancy, I was told many stories by other mothers who had suffered with “Mummy Brain”.
For those not familiar with Mummy Brain, it’s basically a bunch of things that you may or may not do as a new mother, which will be considered silly, irrational, confusing, and most of the time, hilarious (in hindsight).
Mummy Brain mostly stems from sleep deprivation due to looking after a newborn baby who does not yet have a sleeping pattern.
I hadn’t a clue what to expect, but knowing how forgetful and easily confused I was already, I knew I was doomed to experience many Mummy Brain moments.
And I was right.
So, to show other mothers that going a little insane is normal when you have a newborn baby, I decided to share some stories.
Here is a list of events compiled with the help of a couple of other mummies.
I drove to the wrong destinations.
Once, I ended up at a supermarket car park on autopilot. When I arrived, I grabbed my shopping bags and asked myself “what do I need to buy?” — it was at that moment I realised I wasn’t supposed to be at a supermarket at all. I was supposed to be driving into town to meet a friend for a coffee. But I was already out of the car so I took advantage of the situation and did a small food shop before driving the rest of the way into town! I was only 20 minutes late…
A mummy friend’s experience in her own words.
“I picked my daughter up upside down and didn’t realise until I rested her on the bed and went to kiss her head but kissed her feet instead! I will add it was the middle of the night and the lights were off.”
Finding nappies in the washing basket.
The curious thing about this is I didn’t even question why they were there at the time. I would casually put them in the bin once found, and I’d move on with my day.
I remember only thinking to myself much later — how was I not bothered by my discovery of the nappies in the basket? How did I not come to question how they got there?
Eventually, when I found myself throwing the nappy in the basket yet again, I thought, “maybe I should try not to make a habit of this.”
Surprise poop.
It’s almost as if my brain wanted to go one step further and mock my levels of insanity.
Literally days after writing about throwing dirty nappies in the washing basket not only did I somehow let my body throw the nappy in the washing basket, I subconsciously thought it would be funny to allow myself to mindlessly put it through the machine for a wash.
My conscious self only realised the atrocities of my actions when I was taking the alleged clean clothes out and a marble-size piece of poop landed in my hand.
My husband laughed for days.
I’ll admit here that my son is 18 months old and sleeps beautifully — therefore once you contract Mummy Brain, it stays with you forever.
Another friend’s Mummy Brain (are you convinced that it’s a thing yet?)
“I remember once changing Baby’s nappy in the night and then waking up the next morning to find a pancake flat nappy that I had slept on…pretty gross I know.”
And another one, just in case you doubted me.
“There was a weird time I went through when my daughter would wake and feed in the night and for some reason, I kept taking her sleeping bag off… and then would wake up a bit and realise ‘shoot, I’ve taken her bag off again’ and then having to try and get it back onto her without waking her up. Never worked.”
There is Daddy Brain too (sleep deprivation is not sexist).
When our son was born, he slept in the cot next to my husband’s side of the bed for the first month while I recovered from a bad back post-labour. I would wake him up when our son needed a feed so he could pass our son to me.
When he woke up and heard our son crying one night, he was convinced that our son was actually lying on his chest, so he proceeded to pat it in an attempt to soothe him.
I still laugh at my husband for this.
I believe Mummy Brain is a coping strategy.
It’s a way for the universe to add a little fun in your life when you’re going through big changes. At least in hindsight… I was definitely not laughing when I was scouring my washing, looking for any remaining pieces of poop.
Having a baby is the most rewarding thing, but it would be an outright lie if I said it was easy.
Change is never easy.
But I remind you that there is a silver lining to every single little thing that happens to you. I write about Mummy Brain to highlight that we are all human and we all live through ridiculous and questionable moments.
So, if you know a new mother, let her know she’s got this.
Do you know anyone who suffers from Mummy Brain? Respond to this article with a funny story!
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Previously published on medium
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Photo credit: by Hans-Peter Gauster on Unsplash