Monica-nesia

You know, I've heard about momnesia and I totally believe in it. However, the articles I've read indicate that it is a temporary thing that largely disappears once you stop nursing.

Is that so.

According to one article I recently read:

Scientists agree. While researchers say they can't explain all the ways motherhood affects a woman's memory, they agree there's a pattern.

Like Massingill, many moms feel mentally foggy in the days after delivery. And they notice that the details of labor and delivery, which are scenes one might expect to be seared into a woman's consciousness, began to slowly slip away.

Sadly, Massingill says, her son's first few weeks of life have become a blur.

Few parents enjoy feeling so scatterbrained, says neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, author of The Female Brain. And momnesia can be dangerous, such as when moms forget to fasten the straps in an infant's car seat. Yet momnesia may give modern mothers an evolutionary advantage, Brizendine says.

"It turns you into someone who serves that little infant, to keep it alive no matter what," says Brizendine, founder of the Women's and Teen Girls' Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California in San Francisco. "Other parts of your brain that are usually on high alert are sort of taken offline."

Women may be reluctant to talk about their memory problems for fear of being judged poorly at work, especially because returning to a demanding job puts even more stress on the brain, Brizendine says.

But women don't get dumber after childbirth. Instead, like sleep-deprived medical residents who learn on the job, their brains are getting a workout. "You are learning a lot," she says. "Once your mommy brain gets readjusted, you get more efficient, and you become smarter and learn things faster, but it won't happen all at once."

Mothers' priorities often change dramatically while caring for a baby. They need to be "hyper vigilant" about their infants, who may develop symptoms of illness that are apparent only to those who have scrutinized their every coo and cry, Brizendine says. "You're on the mother beat all the time. It requires certain parts of your brain to work hyper, hyper, hyper well. But it requires other parts of your brain to play second fiddle."

I haven't been nursing for at least a year now and my brain is still mush. Total mush. It's like I'm 120 years old. I forget names, forget how to spell, forget what I went downstairs for, etc., etc., etc. I first noticed it when I was pregnant with my son. I was watching Jeopardy one afternoon and couldn't answer a single question although I knew I had known the answers just a few months prior. If you had asked me who the first president of the US was, I would've been stumped. Frustrating is an understatement.

Will momnesia ever go away or does it last as long as I am a mom? Am I relegated to being face down in my oatmeal in a few years?

However, the Jeopardy crew was in town last week and was at the Mall of America. We were there to go to Long John Silvers for fish on Friday. Jeopardy was trying out potential contestants for the show. I am pleased to report that I did, indeed, pass the initial round. Surprise! Surprise!

I sat down with my test and didn't know the first two questions. I mean I really didn't know them...ever. Got the last eight questions cold. Zipped right through them. The first question was something like what president was sworn in by his father after the death of President Harding. I don't know. I guessed Wilson, knowing that it was incorrect. Turns out the answer is Coolidge. Then, the next question dealt with my worstest subject...movies. It was what 200X film had certain characters in it, one being the Green Goblin. Ok, I probably could've got this, but with the kids and hubby sitting there distracting me and knowing that movies aren't my subject, I just balked and answered Batman. Everyone knows it's Spiderman...even my son.

But, I was pleased as punch to have passed the test. I didn't go to the next round because at this point in my life, being a Jeopardy contestant just isn't in the cards. I'm too busy with phonics to study up on presidents and the like. I never knew much about opera or the Bourbon kings (or any royalty, really), so there are huge gaps in my knowledge that would make me look idiotic if I went on Jeopardy. I was tickled just to have the satisfaction of passing the test and knowing the fog seems to be lifting, albeit not nearly as fast as I would like. Maybe by the time I've homeschooled my kids for 16 years, I will have learned the things that always stumped me.

I'm already reading up on royalty.