“I think I’m losing my mind,” I said to my husband.

He looked up from the sports page. “Excuse me?”

“I think I’m losing my mind. My memory’s shot. Have you noticed?”

“No, you’re fine.”

I’m not so sure. Since giving birth to my son nearly two years ago, thoughts and words still escape me. During a recent TV interview, my brain went blank in mid-sentence: “The new theory is…the new theory is…”

Thankfully the interview wasn’t live, but I never was able to grab that grand theory out of my brain no matter how many takes we took. Instead, I ended up on the six o’clock news with the reporter’s voice over and me smiling and nodding like a bauble head.

This summer, I couldn’t recall the day in June of my wedding anniversary. Was it the 24th? The 26th? Or the 28th? At this very moment, I think it’s the 24th. Or is it the 26th? And just how old am I going to be this month?

The last straw occurred one afternoon when I spent 20 minutes tearing through the house looking for my Blackberry only to discover I was talking on my Blackberry to my mother. At that point, I scared myself.

It wasn’t until Nina, a Marine Corps wife and mother of three, pegged my condition:

“You’ve got Baby Brain.”

“Baby what?”

Nina explained Baby Brain is a syndrome that causes busy, tired and over-extended mothers to lose their edge and forget things.

Nina’s most memorable Baby Brain moment happened when her daughter was 2 months old. Nina is a lawyer and had just returned to work.

"I was on a simple motion before the court. It was my turn to speak and I couldn’t remember who I was representing. I mean, I was saying, 'Good morning your honor, Nina Gill Valli representing...ummm...ummmm...ahhh...ummm…' and then (the judge) helps out, 'The petitioner, counsel?' " 

And I reply, “Yes, thank you, your honor.”

“How embarrassing,” Nina said. “I didn’t need to remember a name. I only needed to remember which side I was on and the big give-away -- I’m standing behind the petitioner’s table. I think I mentioned Baby Brain to the judge, but no leeway was given.”

Another friend, Kristen, reported that when her son was a baby, she once put a box of cereal in the refrigerator. Her husband, being the caring, thoughtful husband he was, asked if there was a reason the cereal needed to be refrigerated.

“No!” Kristen shouted. “There’s absolutely no reason why the cereal is in the refrigerator other than the fact that I’m losing my @#*!# mind!”

Two minutes later her husband dared to inquire on the whereabouts of the milk.

“I don’t know!” Kristen shouted.

“The next morning, he opened the pantry door and lo’ and behold, there’s the milk,” Kristen said.

After hearing these stories, I did some research and discovered Baby Brain is an actual term and not only that -- it’s backed up by new scientific research. The headline I found said it all: “Psychologists reveal 'baby brain' is not a myth and new mothers suffer forgetfulness for years.”

The 2008 Australian study, published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, analyzed 14 studies from around the world that measured memory performance of 1,000 women. Pregnant women fared the worst, followed by mothers. The scientists weren’t sure of the causes, only that the condition exists.

My friend Joanna, an Air Force brat and mother of two, has a credible theory.

“Do you think we donate brain cells to our children prior to birth?”
Another friend, Cathy, the mother of two, also has an excellent theory:

“Initially I think it’s easy to blame this on lack of sleep, something we all suffer with newborns and very young ones, but it still seems to hang on, long after they’ve begun sleeping through the night. Maybe it’s simply that we have so much coursing through our brains at one time, so much to coordinate, plan, arrange and remember that we simply forget those things that aren’t essential. For in the end, I never forgot to feed or change or rock the baby, but darned if I could remember what that thing that holds the salt is called.”

If anyone would know about Baby Brain it’s my friend Liza, an Army wife and mother of five (three of her kids are triplets who just turned Sweet 16).

“I would love to tell you that Baby Brain goes away,” she said. “But any changes for the better seem to be lost to Father Time.”
Liza keeps things straight with a desktop calendar to manage what she calls her day-to-day chaos.

“I even try to schedule my naps,” she said.

With so many mothers suffering from the same type of brain dysfunction, I decided I had no choice but to go straight to the top and speak to “America’s Grand Master of Memory” Scott Hagwood. (www.scotthagwood.com) Hagwood is a four-time national memory champion, a Guinness Record breaker, and the author of “Memory Power: You Can Develop a Great Memory -- America’s Grand Master Shows You How.” Since the Discovery Channel described Mr. Hagwood as having “one of the best-developed memories in the world,” I decided to put extra thought into my questions.

Me:  A recent study says fatty fish may help memory loss. Is it therefore conceivable fatty Doritos may help my memory as well?

Grand Master of Memory:  I think anything in moderation would help. I believe that study was referring to omega-3 acids. But hey, if it makes you feel good all over -- including your brain --when you eat a few Doritos, eat those Doritos. 

Me: I heard one way to keep your memory sharp is to read regularly. The books I’ve read today include “Happy Birthday Elmo!” and “Eight Silly Monkeys.” Do those apply?

Grand Master of Memory: That’s an interesting question, Tanya.

Me: Why thank you.

Grand Master of Memory: Most of us read to learn or to be entertained. We use our working memory. We don’t read a book in one sitting and have to recall what happened earlier and who the characters are. That’s why reading is always good for the brain. When it comes to toddler books, you’re in a teaching mode. Even though you’ve read Elmo a zillion times, your son is learning something and it’s good for the mother-son bond. When you are in a teaching mode, your brain is taking in parts of the learning process. Studies are out there to support this.

Me: You’re the Grand Master of Memory. Are there some things you’d like to forget? 

Grand Master of Memory: Absolutely. Emotional or bad things that happen to you. If I want to forget something, I just don’t think about it. This technique can be done with mildly hurtful and painful experiences. As soon as you feel that emotion, replace that image with a positive outcome or what you learned from it.

Me: You must hear the same jokes and lines over and over again, like ‘What’s my name? 

Grand Master of Memory:  Tanya, I’ve heard more memory jokes than I care to remember.

Me: Thanks for your time. I’ve gotta run. I’m going to train my brain with Elmo and a bag of Doritos.