Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Baby Mayhem

Well, it's been a long time since I've done this. Let's see if I remember how this goes...

As one or two of you may have noticed, I've been off line for the past couple of months. I blame the new addition to the family. So let me do this all formal like (clears throat): General Disarray and Professor Chaos proudly introduce their daughter Baby Mayhem. Of course she's a couple months old so it's not like she's brand new or anything, but she's new to you!

Baby Mayhem has already taught me much about work/life balance strategies. 1) It is critically important to become an effective multitasker. The number of issues I've dealt with over email while nursing, pumping, or holding a sleeping baby who refuses to rest anywhere but my lap? Innumerable. 2) The multitasking bestfriend of nursing mom? the iPhone. I cannot even fathom surviving the past few months without it. I can email with one hand and cradle a nursing baby with the other. If you are an academic planning on having a child in the near future, I would strongly recommend getting an iPhone or iPhone equivalent.  And if you love reading books (and have an iPhone), the amazon kindle app is a must. I've already read two books on my iPhone and am well into a third. And with a shortcut to your google reader, you can even keep up with all your favorite bloggers. My reader has never been so empty. And when your brain refuses to do anything useful during that 3 am feeding, there are always the cool games. I'm really fond of Flight Control right now

Of course, none of that is science, but I have hope that with a little more efficiency (and getting my stupid tenure binder finished) it will become so in the not too distant future.  In the meantime: Viva Baby Mayhem!