• "I also continuously left my iPod in different spots at the gym after class or I'd walk out with the iPod still plugged into the speakers. I also forgot someone's name I was interviewing mid-conversation."
Another woman found that the brain fog kept interfering with her daily life, and described as "completely forgetting what you were about to do in just about every task you attempt to complete".
• "You do random things you don't remember doing, like putting a pitcher of juice in the cupboard, losing your cell phone for days on end, and even what you did in the previous hour!" Demia, 31, said.
These episodes can sometimes be confusing for the rest of the family, especially little ones, as shown by one mother's experience, which she detailed on Reddit.
• "[I] tried to run my coffee pot without water three times this morning after confusing my very literal toddler by asking what he wanted for lunch ('it breakfast Mommy')."
Momnesia can be especially confusing when it happens to mothers who previously prided themselves on their excellent memories. One woman said she was once capable of remembering all the outfits she had worn over the past few months—until pregnancy came along.
• "I noticed my memory started to change while I was pregnant," Alessa, 31, told Cosmo. I would leave my keys in the door while entering my home. I would unpack all the groceries only to leave the meat on the counter "til my husband came home to find it hours later. It hasn't gotten worse as my son has grown, but it definitely hasn't gotten better. Now, if it isn't written down there is no guarantee it will get accomplished."
Many found themselves wrestling with mental lapses on a regular basis, making for incongruous conversations.
• "We have a car with a push button start and I couldn't remember if you push the gas pedal or the brake pedal to start the car," one woman wrote on Reddit. "I sat there for a minute and then asked my husband. His response? 'Maybe I should drive...'"
• Another explained she forgot the name of the fast food chain Taco Bell and called it "Burritoville" instead.
For some women, brain fog struck at times when they were by themselves, but it didn't make it any less intrusive
• "I was taking a bath last night and baby kicked while my entire stomach was submerged," one Reddit user recounted. "I had a momentary freak-out thinking I was drowning him until I realized he's literally living in a sac of fluid inside of me!"
Several recounted how they found themselves searching for words mid-sentence, sometimes leaving their partners to try to guess what they were trying to say.
• "I lose words," one mother wrote. "Sentences like 'Did you do the .... .... .... .... laundry' are now pretty routine for me."
"This is me all the time!" another person added. "It's routine for me to have questions like 'Hey could you grab the... umm...' Husband then shouts out random things I might need. Then he gives up, because he can never guess what it is. After about two minutes I figure it out!"
One woman accidentally hurt herself due to the effects of the brain fog.
• "Recently, I came home from work, lit a candle in my bedroom, and went to put on a face mask," Molly, 29, told Cosmo. "Afterwards, I sat in bed and—not thinking—I reached for the candle and took a drink from it thinking I had poured myself water, but instead managed to get hot wax on my face."
Several mothers also explained they actually forgot they were expecting, even when they were far into their pregnancies.
• "Around 32 weeks, I was shopping. I put on a dress and thought it was so unflattering because it made my stomach look huge. Somehow between getting the dress from the maternity section and trying it on, I forgot I was pregnant," one Reddit user wrote.
Another woman found herself marveling at the very concept of pregnancy, while forgetting she was experiencing it herself.
• "I was reading some pregnancy book or something, and it crossed my mind: 'Whoaaa... when a woman gets pregnant she actually GROWS a baby! From cell one! I wonder what that feels like, it must be crazy,'" she wrote. "I'm 24 weeks pregnant."
One mother started panicking about a possible pregnancy, before realizing she was, in fact, expecting, and was already aware of the fact.
• "I was walking up something and my boobs started hurting, and I was like S**T! I may be pregnant, what are we going to do," she wrote.
Even after forty weeks of pregnancy, one woman said she still routinely forgot she was expecting.
• "I'm like 'WTF why is it so hard for me to move' while in bed, and then I'm like oh yeah I have a full term f*****g BABY attached to my front," she recounted.
For one woman, dealing with brain fog meant waking up convinced that the entire pregnancy had been nothing but a dream.
• "Night before last, I actually got my first good night's sleep since I found out," she wrote. "I went away to a nice hotel with a friend and woke up in a place I didn't recognize, I wasn't sore, only a bit tired and for a few minutes, I genuinely thought I'd dreamed this whole pregnancy thing."
