Your car keys are in the freezer, you can’t remember any of your passwords, and you just came home from a two-hour grocery shopping expedition with nothing more than a bag of rocky road ice cream and three mangoes. Yeah, you have pregnancy brain. And it’s totally normal — heck, even science says it’s a real thing. Knowing that your seemingly sluggish mental prowess is just part of being pregnant won’t help your sudden forgetfulness, but these tips might just do the trick.

A pregnant woman uses her phone and laptop

1. Write notes, notes, and more notes. Put everything down on paper. Or rather, use one of the gazillion note-making apps to create lists. You know, “just in case” you forget (you totally will). You can also text your S.O. (not only can they remind you, but you’ll have the text you sent to view) or send yourself emails.

2. Work out more than once in a while. While exercise on its own won’t cure pregnancy brain, it does give you time to relax and de-stress. Letting go and getting physical can help to recharge your mental state. Whether you hit the gym, take a walk around the block, or join a prenatal yoga class, you’ll find benefits galore in a daily workout.

3. Get enough sleep. Okay, okay, so it’s not always easy to get a full night’s sleep — especially when your growing baby has their foot pressed up against your bladder. But do what you can to get as much rest as possible. A tired mama-to-be is a forgetful mama-to-be. This might mean changing your dinner plans to a lunch date or waiting until the weekend to catch up on the emails that are littering your inbox.

4. Take pictures of everything. In a few short months, you’ll be snapping away, taking pic after pic of your lovely little newborn. But for right now, use photos as a memory tool. This strategy is helpful if you tend to forget where you parked your car, what you have left in the fridge (and what you need at the store), or people’s names (edit a photo of them to add a caption).

A pregnant woman clicks her car keyfob

5. Designate organization areas. Everything has a home. That’s it. There’s nothing easier than finding what you’re looking for exactly where it belongs. Create “homes” for important objects, such as your keys or your phone. Keeping your keys in the same basket next to your desk at work every day means that you’ll be less likely to misplace them and freak out at 5pm when you want to go home but can’t get into your car.

6. Set alarms all day long. You were supposed to meet your BFF for lunch at noon. At 12:30 you get a “where r u?” text. Your friend probably understands your new tendency to flake out. But you could have avoided the whole situation if you had set an alarm on your phone to help you remember to head out.

7. Talk it out. Pregnancy isn’t always rainbows, lollipops, and unicorns. Sometimes it’s scary — even when everything is going perfectly fine. The stress you’re feeling is normal, but it’s still weighing on your mind. The more time you spend thinking about the “what ifs,” the less time you can devote to thinking about everything else. Talking to your S.O., a family member, or a friend can help you to better cope with the stress and get some of your pre-pregnancy memory back.

8. Enlist the help you need. Preparing for baby comes with an almost endless list of must-dos. Trying to knock every item off your “get it done ASAP” list by yourself is only adding to the pressure you feel. While you can’t have someone else grow the baby for you, there’s no reason that your other half, family, and friends can’t pitch in and help out. The less you have to think about, the less you’ll forget!

Tweet us your funniest pregnancy brain moment @BritandCo!

(Photos via Getty)

Erica Loop
Erica Loop is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh. When she's not busy creating kids' activities for her blog Mini Monets and Mommies, you can find her trying to hang out with her teenage son, being chased by her two Olde Boston Bulldogs or teaching a children's karate class (she's a third degree black belt!).