We just got home from a festive Thanksgiving weekend just outside Mankato, Minnesota, where Ari got a chance to see grandparents, meet a HUGE amount of family (including another set of great-grandparents), and basically get spoiled non-stop (so many new faces, toys, and foods!). It was special, though we are certainly happy to be home and thrilled to not have airline travel plans with our daughter anytime soon (our patience and bank account could use the break!). (I mentioned many times this weekend: poor second child is going to get shafted in terms of travel.)
Some of the highlights were 21 people breaking bread and giving thanks together around a massively long table, Ari reading book after book with her great-grandfather (rather, him reading them to her, at least for now), and the antics of a dog named Buddy. The low point was definitely the food poisoning. I didn’t know my body could produced so much bile so quickly. In all seriousness, though, it happens to all of us at some point or another, and I am ridiculously thankful that it happened while I was in a comfortable home with grandparents who were more than happy to take care of my child while I lay curled around the toilet. It could have been so much worse.
Unfortunately, due to illness and studying, I got close to no pictures over the weekend, so below are snapshots of our few glimpses of peace on the travel home. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time before the age of two years, but I kind of feel like on an airplane, when it’s nap time and your toddler is practically pulling her hair out being constrained on your lap, most anything goes. Is 15 minutes of “Ten Little Numbers” on repeat to get her to sleep really going to do any lasting damage? (If so, please let me know!)
Aurelia’s brief slumber gave me a chance to skim the Obstetrics chapter in USMLE Step 2 Secrets, which I sorely needed. How pathetic is it that I’m doing the worst on the OB questions in my step 2 q-bank? I missed a question on prenatal testing yesterday…I mean, aren’t I in the middle of all that, for the second time?! Maybe I’m exercising some defense mechanism by not learning too much about what I’m experiencing on the patient side of things…the opposite of intellectualization; maybe thought suppression? (You’d never know I was scoring better on the psych questions…)
anna in med school 
Hi Anna.
I came across a post you wrote about being pregnant in medical school and here I am obsessively digging through your posts for insight. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as my boyfriend is a bit older than I. We’re not married yet but in the event we get married, the idea of having children in medical school scares the crap out of me. I also don’t want to put my life on hold while in medical school but what if I can’t handle it? What if it’s too much? I already hear horror stories about how hard medical school is.
I don’t know if you could reply with maybe some links to posts that I would find helpful. Or if it’s not too personal, I’d love to find a way to talk to you about your experiences. Seeing as I’ll be the first in my famiily to attend med school, I don’t have many people to talk to.
Love your blog.
Sincerely,
Kimberly.
PS. Your baby is absolutely adorable.
Hi there!
What a kind note, thank you!! And I would be happy to chat any time…well, after December 12th if that’s okay (it’s when I take step 2, it’s gonna be a little crazy before then :/). Does over email work for you?
You should know, I don’t think I’m in any position to give advice, because I’m still such a novice at all this. But here’s what I hope are some words of encouragement…
The nice thing is, there really isn’t one way of going about this whole parenthood/med school thing. I have a classmate who has children, hasn’t missed a beat of med school, is going into a competitive specialty, and is an absolutely amazing mom. For me, it was important to take a long maternity leave (I took six months off of med school) because I wanted the opportunity to sort of find my own rhythm and style of motherhood. I’ll take another few months off after baby #2 and graduate med school in five years instead of four. Even though I’m turning 30 this month (!!), I don’t feel like one more year in school is holding me back…but it’s just a personal choice.
In terms of “handling it,” there are moments when I don’t, and I think that’s okay. (Oh, when I think about all the times my first year I was sobbing on the phone with my husband 🙂 ) But I think/hope, that we all kind of adjust to what we have. Right now it’s pretty impossible to think about having a second kid, but we’ll need to jump into it in five months. We’re just blissfully a little ignorant/naive, and we hope it all works out. I think if you want a family in med school, you can absolutely make it all work out, in your own way. This is all so vague, but I truly do believe that!
(BTW, I am NOT a science person, so there have definitely been times when med school has felt super overwhelming. But once you’re in med school, your advisors/professors/mentors are pretty committed to you succeeding…it always helped me get through the rough patches by knowing that I would, somehow, get through them.)
I hope you’re doing well, I look forward to hearing from you, and I wish you the best of luck with all your plans!
Oh, and thanks for the comment on the babe–she’s a good kid!