Alyson Hannigan was on the Ellen DeGeneres show earlier this year saying that she had pregnancy brain. I realize that this is old news now since this happened at the end of January but the topic of pregnancy brain recently came up while I was talking with a customer.

She had placed her order for baby shower invitations but put a shipping address that she had not lived at  for over 10 years.  Luckily she caught her mistake in time before we shipped – you have to love a happy ending –  and she blamed her crazy error all on the massive pregnancy brain she was experiencing.   She said that putting an old address down was not something she ever would have done before she was pregnant.

She isn’t my first customer to mention pregnancy brain either. Misspelling your older child’s name that you’ve been spelling for the last 5 years, putting the wrong birth year when you just gave birth a few days earlier, completely forgetting where you have registered for your baby shower…. these are all things some of our customers have blamed on pregnancy brain.  You know what, I understand this completely.

I’ve always prided myself on my excellent memory.  One of the best things about being in the birth announcement and baby shower industry is being able to work one on one with designs for each customer.  I’ve always loved when a repeat customer comes along with a new baby because I remember them from their first child.  I have a customer who orders photo Christmas cards every year for the last 8 years and I’ve just loved watching how much the kids have grown.  She always reminds me who she is when she places her order every year but she doesn’t need to.  I remember her and I’m am grateful to have the type of   memory that has allowed me to form special bonds with customers.  I am especially grateful for this because during the 9 months I was pregnant with my daughter and for about 4 months afterwords, my memory was just completely filled with holes.

My spouse has a horrible memory and during my pregnancy it was the first time I truly understood what that was like.  I couldn’t remember doctor appointment times and I had never had to write them down before.  I had a difficult pregnancy and I became very close at that time to a nurse who help me get through it but I could never remember her name even though I saw her every day for 3 months.  I did silly things like put the ice cream  away in the refrigerator rather than the freezer.  Sure that happens to all of us but you would be shocked if I told you just how often I did things like that.

I have no doubt at all that I experienced “pregnancy brain”, “cottonwood brain” as it is sometimes know or even the cute “momnesia”, however not everyone agrees.  According to a study done by Australian researchers pregnant women are not more likely to have memory lapses or problems with attention to detail.  I am definitely not a scientist nor do I play one on television but in our own little Miracle Munchkins world filled with many many pregnant moms, I go on the records stating that I am a believer that  pregnancy brain really does exist.

What do you think? Have you ever experience pregnancy brain?