Dr. Mom is now playing the waiting game. After months of Facebook status updates concerning the pending birth of our son Trai (Charles Adam Gold III), my life has now been reduced to only a few exciting tasks: sleeping, peeing, eating, and television...and that's probably in priority order.
Don't get me wrong, I've had the luxury of a complication free pregnancy for which I'm eternally grateful. Yet, a lot of emotional baggage comes along with what my line sister calls "high functioning women". We let go of giving 150% to our careers, churches and communities in order to give some of ourselves to everyone, especially a new, highly-dependent little person. Instead of waking up early to respond to emails before everyone else gets to the office, we take the extra time to drink something sweet to make sure the baby is happy and mobile in his shrinking apartment. Instead of getting to work early and staying late, we leave unapologetically to attend doctors appointments and put our swollen feet up. Instead of staying close to the PDAs 24-7, we work our magic in the 8 hours we have at the office and then try to leave it there.
Yep, life is a-changing from workaholism to a PG-rated version of work/life integration (since anyone who's ever tried it knows that work/life balance is a mythical creature).
So many of my Facebook friends have told me in posts, inbox messages, and emails that they have been on the motherhood journey with me (you stalkers!) and you'd like to continue on. This blog is an opportunity for colleagues, family members, and friends to tag along. Bookmark my blog so we can continue the journey!
Meanwhile, I'll be walking, drinking raspberry tea, waiting for Trai's arrival, and pondering the next post.
Shauna -- I really appreciate your thoughts on being a mom and think they're particularly important for academic moms to consider... For 13 years I've been working to put my family first, and I like to think I've been fairly successful with both that and advancing my career. Home and family provide the perspective I need to be the best I can be at work. My thoughts and most positive energy are with you as you make the transition to motherhood... :-)
ReplyDelete