pompous posting: life update

I decided to lump two (possibly) boring topics together so readers don't have to suffer through 2 different posts. I mean, I think my son's milestones are riveting and I believe my career update is important...but probably only those that actually know me care. Don't worry, I won't try to explain what The Match for residency is. I've explained it to my own mother a zillion times, and she still doesn't get it ("So what happens if they offer you a job in an interview? You gonna take it?").

I bought a really beautiful, sweet baby book for Parker. I haven't even cracked it open. It's on my list of things I have to do, but I just haven't gotten around to it :( Maybe one day I will, but in the meantime, let me remind myself of tricks Parker is doing these days.

He is 8.5 months old now. He started crawling and pulling to a stand at 7 months. He is now able to stand unassisted for somewhere around 30 seconds until he sit-falls. Just before he turned 8 months he started to babble "dadada." He just made the cut off for pediatrician evaluation for lack of babbling, since I was going to take him in if there was still no babbling at 8 months. He now babbles "mama" and "baba" regularly, and occasionally makes other sounds. He has never had any socialization issues...except he sometimes is sensitive to too much noise, especially if he is tired.

Because no one can resist a baby laughing, here is your reward for putting up with this post:

As far as my career goes, I am in the process of finished registering for my "rank order list" for residency. This is pretty simple since I am only ranking 3 programs (unlike most people, who, on average, rank 15-20 programs). This was a harder decision than I anticipated it was going to be, but I am finally at peace with my decision, and now it's just going to be a waiting game for match day. This year it is on March 16.

I have a lot of anxiety jumping back into the medicine grind after a year away. I have anxiety mostly about leaving Parker for 80+ hours a week, but also about some insecurity about my knowledge-base dwindling. I need to stop reading books like The Hunger Games (or blogging my life away) and get some academic reading started. In equal proportion to the anxiety I am feeling very excited also. Here is the sucky part...I feel guilty about feeling excited. Oh well. Suppression of guilt is not something I am new to.

I would love to hear your thoughts on going back to work after having a baby!