New Baby and Updates!

I think I've gotten carried away with separating out all of the blogs that I have going...I've overextended myself, so to speak!  In any case, I figured I'd give an update to this one.  For as few blog posts as I had while pregnant, on August 8th, 2013 I went from being the "pregnant post-doc" to being the "post-partum post-doc".

My 3rd child, first daughter, was born at exactly 37 weeks!  She arrives after 9 weeks of pre-term labor and bed rest.  The story is pretty long, and I've posted it (as well as the whole pre-term labor saga) on my other blog (Kaitlyn's Birth Story).

If it's one thing I've taken away from this pregnancy (and I've taken away more than one lesson!), it's learning a LOT about pre-term labor.  I don't profess to know everything, or every situation (because there are situations that are way more severe/serious/scary than mine was), but I've been enlightened to the side of pregnancy where everything is not textbook normal.

Being a scientist, I often look at cause and effect, and try to figure out what might have happened in my situation.  I try to visualize what's going on inside of me, and I probably over analyze every test result and appointment.  I keep track of everything...no matter how crazy or minute!

So I'm at home for the next few weeks, adjusting to life as a mother of three, and becoming reacquainted with life with a newborn.  I have to admit that I did enjoy maternity leave (once I got the hang of things and a routine down) with my 2nd.  I felt rested on most days, napping when he slept.  I've been trying to do the same with this baby, although the window of time that I have to nap is cut a little short with my oldest coming home after kindergarten.

Having been on bedrest for 9 weeks, and pretty much cooped up in the hospital or the house (aside from short trips out to daycare or to the doctor's office for appointments and things), I was pretty anxious to get out there and do stuff.  And I have...but I still like that rest time.  I did feel like I got decent rest in before the baby came, so that I am grateful for, aside from the caveat that I could go into labor at any time, and I wasn't 100% comfortable all the time either.

In post-doc land, that is coming to an end at my place of employment.  It should have come to an end on June 14th, but labor started, and the rest is history.  In a perfect world, and at the start of this pregnancy, I felt comfortable and confident in having a job to come back to (and my husband had a stable job too).  But that has now been shattered, and I continue my quest for a new job (something I've started a post about, but I've never finished).

The research I'm leaving behind is another tough pill to swallow.  All of the things that I had "planned" to do to keep things going while on maternity leave, I don't need to take into consideration.  Instead, the job hunt continues!  And I'll leave it at that.