To Good Health

I was on a flight and had intended to work, but the WiFi wasn't working and I had to settle for drafting a blog update and a few emails for later. 

It's been a bit of a stressful month, insofar as I was scheduled to travel to attend three client development events in three consecutive weeks, which wouldn't have been that bad (other than the childcare burden on my wife), except that my wife caught COVID at a work event right before my first trip, and I caught it from her and tested positive right after I got back from that trip. Our son didn't test positive right away, but it wasn't long before he did, and that threw our childcare and work schedules into disarray, not to mention the concern for my wife's pregnancy. I had to cancel my second trip and perform a juggling act for almost two weeks to meet all of my responsibilities. Fortunately, we all tested negative this past weekend and our symptoms have resolved except that we each have a lingering cough, and I was able to complete the third scheduled trip, but the whole thing was not an experience I want to repeat. I'm just lucky that I made partner and am under less billable hours pressure, that we were all fully vaccinated and had relatively mild symptoms, and that things are now getting back to more of a familiar routine. 

All of our tests and ultrasounds for the new baby have come back normal, so we are hopeful (somehow I don't dare say expecting for fear of jinxing it) about the arrival of a healthy baby girl in late April or early May. My wife doesn't want us to treat our kids any differently based on gender and is sensitive to my saying this, but I'm glad we will have at least one boy and one girl to start. It will be a fun adventure and an expansion of my life experience! My wife generally thinks that her current job will enable her to take real maternity leave (unlike her last job, and assuming that recent tech industry layoffs don't impact her first), but I'm not sure how much bonding leave I'll be able to take as a partner without it affecting my compensation. I figure it's too early to start asking about that, and I might be disinclined to take more than a few consecutive weeks off in any event, for the sake of avoiding disruptions to client relationships. But the time after the birth will be another stressful period in some respects, and I'll need to put family first, so hopefully my firm will appreciate the need for me to step away a little bit for that.

We are transitioning our son to a daycare/preschool setting in the mornings, keeping our nanny in the afternoons. Our morning nanny left us for another family, but that was probably for the best because she wasn't great, and we had considered letting her go, and also because our son could benefit from a transition to a more social, school-like setting, although he is not happy about it so far. We have tried to facilitate the transition as well as we can, but the center we picked doesn't allow parents to be there for more than 15 min after dropoff, and that's difficult for our son, who isn't used to being apart from us away from home and his nannies. So it's a hard time for him, but hopefully it will get better with practice.

One last bit of news: the midterm election results are mostly in, and while we don't know for sure yet which party will control Congress, my optimism about the election has been rewarded in that there hasn't been a landslide of far-right victories. So that's another reason to be hopeful. Now we just need to get past this bout of inflation and the recession that is likely to result, but I feel grateful that we are in a good position to weather that storm too. Of course, all the good vibes come with a twinge of fear about the fact that my parents are only getting older and their continued health isn't guaranteed, but then, nothing is, and we have to just appreciate what we have. So I'm focusing on that, and looking forward to seeing them after Christmas.