I'm suffering from an enhanced strain of baby brain - boddler brain

Sometimes it feels like, from the moment you get pregnant, your mind (and your body) starts playing tricks on you. Not surprising then that such a phenomenon has a well known shorthand: baby brain.

We've all heard the stories of women putting their car keys in the freezer or a jar of mayonnaise in their shoe cupboard. Indeed, it was on the back of such tales that I thought I'd got away pretty lightly up to now '“ forgetting the odd word, failing to recall whether I'd restocked the changing bag - not much different than normal to be honest (except that I never had a changing bag before I had a baby).

Second time around, it's a different story. You see, I think I'm suffering from an enhanced strain of baby brain '“ boddler brain: shorthand for baby and toddler brain, brought on in circumstances where one has simultaneous responsibility for a baby and a toddler, usually resulting in lack of sleep at night and no rest in the day.

Now, I will admit, this is a self-diagnosis - I turned to the internet for help but it seems that boddler brain has not yet been coined as a term to describe this phenomenon - time for that to change, I say, there must be more of us out there.

With that in mind, here are a couple of my early symptoms in case you think you or a loved one could be suffering from the same malady.

First was the occasion when I got to the end of my (very long) road with family in tow, looked down at my feet and realised I was still wearing my slippers. A new postnatal fashion in the making, perhaps? I thought better of it and swiftly headed home to change, this time without the distraction of baby and toddler.

Then came the morning I went out in the garden to hang some washing out, only to find yesterday's washload hanging limply on the line. What's next, I ask?

Clothes in the shed and a watering can in the wardrobe?! Stay tuned for further 'boddler brain' updates'¦ (If I can remember them).