Introduction to the chaos

Just an introduction to me and the idea behind this blog.

I’m a 27 year old female engineer living in a town with more PhD’s per capita than anywhere else in the US. I work doing airframe modifications on military helicopters, but I’m also interested in getting into the loads analysis portion as well. I’m in a master’s program working on a Master’s of Science in Engineering in the field of rotorcraft systems engineering. At times I think the program is out to kill me, but that’s about normal. I take 2 classes a semester and will graduate in December of 2009 providing things stay on track. I am a huge college hockey fan and go to all of the UAH Charger’s home games am a tomboy at heart. I love to watch football, NASCAR and hockey. I also love college and pro football and will watch almost anyone that is on TV. In college I’m a loyal Bama fan and like any team that knocks off Tennessee for a game. Pro’s I follow the Titans, Seahawks and anyone that knocks off Payton Manning or the Patriots. I studied genbukan martial arts for 5 years and would love to get back into it, but at the right time where I’m not in school as well. I miss it a lot but want to be able to devote more time to it which is what it takes to be good.

Around February of last year when I was pregnant with our first child together I asked W at breakfast what he thought about becoming a stay at home dad. To be honest I never really thought it was odd, but more that I wasn’t fond of someone else raising our son. Also I was looking at the cost of daycare and at a minimum that was going to cost $125 a week. So after a couple of weeks of looking at finances and weighing all the options W and I decided when HH2 was born he would quit his part time job at Babies R Us to start a new job as a stay at home dad (SAHD). I honestly expected a lot of backlash from some parts of the family but surprisingly they were very supportive. The critics have come from people who don’t understand and are too narrow-minded to consider a family where many of the rolls are reversed.

A typical day for me generally starts really early. Around 3 or 3:30am early if that tells you anything. I get up and pump HH2 first bottle of the day and look at the news on the net. Lately I've been working very long days so I'm normally at work between 4 and 5. Depending on the day I work until between 2 and 4. Some days I leave and go to school at 2 and I’m there for between 2 and 6 hours and then on days I’m not in school I’m normally home by 4. I pump once during the day at work in the bathroom since there isn’t anywhere else to do it. When I get home though its all mommy time. HH2 or butters as W calls him wants nothing to do with daddy when I come home. He generally wants to nurse the minute I walk in the door and then its play time, dinner, bath/ play time, get ready for bed then nurse to sleep/ drowsy. Then starts time for studying and maybe catching a couple of tv shows, but more often than not its hitting the books. I normally try and get to bed between 9 and 9:30 just because I need the rest. To be honest W and I don’t get much time together since I’ve been so busy. I do what I can to make time but it’s just hard.

I do a lot of baby wearing when we are out since I come to dislike strollers in most social situations. I also have been nursing my son for almost 11 months now and have no intentions on stopping soon. I have adopted the philosophy of child led weaning but at the same time I intend of having limits.

The reason I wanted to start this blog was I found very few blogs from women who were working and nursing and trying to do it all while staying sane. Basically that is who I am. I am a working mom and graduate student trying to somehow balance work, school and family all at once and not lose my mind.

I’m not going to say that this thing will be updated more than once a week. I stay pretty busy so my goal is once a week or every two weeks. So anyway welcome to the life of a female engineer/ graduate student/ wife and mother.