Thursday, November 09, 2006

A new chapter

I've been debating for a while whether or not to blog about this. If I do, there's a good chance my anonymity (such as it is) may be a bit more compromised. And since my (perception of) anonymity has been important to me---it allows me to be a bit freer to share things, particularly about the culture of this profession, that I might not feel comfortable about otherwise---this is no small issue. On the other hand, the thing about which I haven't blogged is actually part of the reason I've been a bit more quiet than usual on here lately. It's been a big part of my life for the past few months, something that has really touched almost every aspect of my life. And because of this, I wanted to talk about it, but didn't feel comfortable talking about it, and it sometimes felt weird to talk about my life without talking about it. (Does that make sense? I hope so.)

So I've decided that this is important enough, and big enough, that I have to share it. Even if it means that I'm a bit less anonymous. This is going to affect everything I do, and in some respects who I am, and it seems unnatural to not talk about it here. So I've taken a few precautions (you'll notice the archives are gone, and I've made the blog non-searchable/indexable from this point on) in regards to anonymity, and now I'm ready to reveal the reason behind this post's title:

I'm pregnant.

And so, a new chapter in the life of Jane begins.....

28 comments:

Ianqui said...

Wow! Congratulations! That's great!

Chaser said...

That is big news! Wow! Congrats!! You are going to be a great mom, I bet!

CSDL said...

Wow Jane, thats exciting!

Congratulations and good luck! :-D

~profgrrrrl~ said...

:) Yay!

Anonymous said...

Geek baby names: http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/889.html

post-doc said...

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you!

Anonymous Economist said...

Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I have to mention that if you are planning on giving the baby a computing related name, the name Google has already been done in Sweden. See the story at http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2335&date=20051020

pjm said...

2.0? Release Candidate? ;-)

Congratulations!

(Hasn't reduced your anonymity in my neck of the woods, other than to confirm what I already know: that I don't know you. Which doesn't narrow things down much.)

Erin said...

Congratulations! Enjoy starting your next big adventure!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations - that's wonderful!!!

So if you're announcing this now, does that mean you managed the classic academic trick of conceiving in time to give birth over the summer? ;-)

Anonymous said...

How thrilling! Congratulations!

skookumchick said...

Wowza, congratulations! I can understand your ambivalence about blogging about this... do you think your pregnancy has impacted your (pretty down, if this blog is any measure) semester in other ways?

Best wishes to you and Mr. Jane... :-)

Andy said...

Congratulations! That's awesome! Baby Jane is on it's way. Will you find out what it will be or are you going to wait?

ScienceWoman said...

Congratulations, Jane! When I saw your comment on my blog this morning, I wondered about it. And now I know! I'm thrilled for you.

I know how hard it can be to balance the academic life with the physical demands of being pregnant, so just remember to listen to your body as much as possible. And employ your strategy of "good enough."

Congrats! Congrats! Congrats!

PhD Mom said...

Congrats! Not sure how this news would effect anonymity. There are plenty of pregnant professors out there from time to time. Best of luck.

luolin said...

Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

For a phd student who is debating about getting pregnant now or later during my career, your insights are probably going to shape my decisions..Please keep them coming.

And CONGRATS!!!

Rebecca said...

Congratulations!

I have been reading your blog for some time now and I think we have a lot in common, in that I also am a computer scientist (numerical analysis, actually), I am the only woman in my department (although at a national lab, not a university), and I now have a five-week-old baby.

When I first found out that I was pregnant, I became really paranoid about work, because here I am the only woman (except for the secretary), and I try to remain "inconspicuously female," that is, I don't want them to notice that I'm female. Then here I go and do the most female thing possible, namely, becoming pregnant. But it all worked out okay for me.

As it turned out, I work with a bunch of softies and they were really excited for me. Most of the people I work with are about my father's age, so I was quite surprised that even these older guys were so supportive. They even went so far as to hold a baby shower for me (admittedly organized by the secretary, but she collected quite a bit of money from all the guys).

My husband has sent lots of pictures of the baby to the secretary, and she's forwarded them on to my colleagues, who have really enjoyed seeing them. It still comes as a shock to me that these people at work don't mind me having an outside life.

When I return to work at the end of the month, I will have to see how people are. I have to admit that I almost feel like this is too good to be true.

If the people at your workplace are not similarly receptive, Jane, there are some great positions at national labs. The environment here seems to be more amenable to having a balanced life. I might also encourage you to apply for a joint lab/university position (at our lab, we have at least one available in computer science) assuming your research is within the scope of what we do.

Sorry for the length of this comment. Hope it helps. Don't hesitate to ask me if you have any questions.

Anonymous said...

Jane, I am so happy for you! I never had kids myself. Wanted to at various points but it never happened. So I'm thrilled for you that you are taking this adventure in life! May you have only supportive, caring colleagues and NO morons to drag you down! And a baby Jane that sleeps through the night almost immediately! Congratulations!

Ms.PhD said...

Weird. I knew from the way you were writing, before I even got halfway down this post.

Best wishes.

AAYOR said...

Congratulations, Jane! I hope that this chapter is the most exciting yet! :-)

Jane said...

Thanks, everyone! Answering some of your questions/observations:

to WiseWoman: thanks for the link! I don't think I'll be doing the geek name thing, but you never know... :)

to New Kid: Yeah, we did, or at least we're pretty darn close. I thought it was just a myth, but apparently it's possible! :)

to skookumchick: It's definitely impacted stuff this semester---remember my post about doing just enough to get by? Well, turns out that's been my survival tactic---in order to take care of myself, I've had to cut out a lot of the crap I normally do/deal with. Which has been very therapeutic! But I think some of the down-ness can definitely be attributed to hormones, nausea, general tiredness...basically, all the body changes that you go through during the early part of pregnancy.

to Andy: We're going to try and be surprised. I'm not sure how well that will work, but we'll see!

to ScienceWoman: That's been my survival mantra so far, and it's helped me keep my sanity. (That, and 8 hours of sleep a night. :) )

to Rebecca: Thanks for the tips! I'm glad things have been working out for you---and I have to say that so far my colleagues have been super-supportive of me. (But as you point out, let's wait and see what happens when I go back to work after the baby arrives!) Best of luck to you when you return to work!

um yeah said...

Congratulations, Jane. I'm sorry I've not been reading blogs much for a while, but I am THRILLED to hear such wonderful news.

Jill said...

Oh WONDERFUL! That's great news, Jane, congratulations!!! I'm sure it'll all work out - and keep posting!

When are you due?

Jane said...

thanks, Jill and Saoirse! Jill, I'm due in late spring.

viz said...

Congratulations and best of luck!

John Dupuis said...

Hi Jane, Great news! Congratulations!

A few years ago at York one of the untenured female librarians got pregnant and suddenly everyone realized that there were no provisions in our contract for stopping the tenure clock for librarians -- it was there for faculty, but not librarians. In the 15 or so years since we'd negotiated our tenure status, not one untenured female librarian had ever had a kid! Needless to say, the powers that be worked it all out in her favour and she was able to stop her tenure clock. Ironically, after the kid was born she decided to stay at home and never came back. Anyways, since then there've been a few more cases, with two untenured women about to take leaves in the next several months.