Does baby brain exist?

Wandering into a room and wondering why you’re there. Filling the kettle and pouring the cold water straight onto your tea bag. Driving to the supermarket instead of the doctor. Apparently, being pregnant causes your brain to become confused and the sense of being addled doesn't necessarily go away when the baby arrives. In that case I've had a bad case of baby brain and it’s only getting worse.

I’m not sure I believe in baby brain. I don’t think my brain has been changed by having a baby; I think I’m just very tired. Pregnancy and caring for a little baby are exhausting and being exhausted makes it harder to function. There is also a lot more to think about at any one moment. A day with Meredith is great fun but it’s like patting your head and rubbing your tummy while jumping on a merry-go-round.

It is not that my brain is under powered, it is just over committed and easily distracted. My thinking is as sound as it was before having a baby but the creative process takes a lot longer. I might start thinking about how to make the call of the sea more evident in the opening chapters of A New World and a few days later I might come to a conclusion, a few days after that I might get round to writing it down.

This week Wild Rose has been with the brilliant EBook Partnership being made into an EBook. It has been a challenge to get my brain into action for providing a short blurb, a long blurb, information about the writer. It is difficult to concentrate while Meredith is playing next to me – or grunting endlessly for reasons known only to herself –and the thirty minute islands of silence when she is asleep have not been long enough this week.

Although getting everything done for the EBook has been hard work, being forced to take more time in the creative process is generally a good thing. It is not how I would choose to work but it leads to more considered decisions and properly ruminated writing.

Wild Rose will be available to buy soon. If you’re on Twitter, follow me @WoolleyRosie to get the latest news.

Related posts: The Fog