One on the way

So, I've decided to take a different angle with this blog. When I started it, I had just left a job that I found extremely demanding and stressful and that made me constantly need to choose between being a mom and wife and succeeding in my career. The multi-tasker side of me thought that I could juggle everything. But in that job, I realized that I needed to refocus my priorities - I wasn't able to be the mom and wife I wanted to be without the quality of my work suffering.

If you had asked me then if it was possible to balance a demanding job and family life, I would have no. At the time, it seemed like an impossibility. And in that situation, it was.

And so I made a really tough decision and decided to leave my job in search of a new one. In retrospect, it was the best thing I ever did. Sure I'm still in the honeymoon period of my new job, but so far, it's proving to fit much better in my life.

Shortly after I started my job, we found out that we were expecting our second baby. It came as a surprise to us and I have to admit I wrestled with how to tell the world. Let's face it: announcing that you're pregnant after being in a new job for only six weeks is far from ideal. I was truly torn. On one hand, I was overjoyed that my little Audrey would have company. On the other, I was dreading telling my co-workers.

Anyway, in the end it all turned out ok - so great, in fact, that there really has been no drama to pen here. Nothing really insightful about being a working mom to log. So I'm changing the theme.

I've found very little resources about how to manage having a second baby. I want to know what strollers to buy and if it makes sense to buy a double when I think Audrey won't be needing a stroller for that much longer. I want to know if how people deal with a baby crying in all hours while trying to make sure that the toddler down the hall stays asleep.

So here I am.

Hello World

So this is my very first post. Don't know exactly what this blog is going to morph into, but I've been wanting to capture not only some of the small yet huge achievements of my 18-month-old daughter, as well as balancing my life as a working mom for a large organization in Toronto.

I've recently left my job at a medium-sized interactive agency. I was only there a year. I didn't want to go; I just felt that I had to. I was working in a director-level role in this very fast-paced, growing company. When I joined, the company's Toronto location was only 8 months old. Ten months later, the office represented 20% of its total sales. Yup, it was nuts.

I went into my job fully thinking that I could keep my priorities straight. The only thing I'd have to do was "manage expectations" upfront about when I would be coming and going. "Set boundaries" of when to call it a night. And it worked for a bit. But as my job got more and more demanding, I found that my work performance was suffering and I was still rushing home just to barely tuck my little girl into bed.

So no one was winning.

Anyway, I decided to leave that place in search of a challenging job that would still let me be a mom. Today, I'm signing on the dotted line for a new role. I'm starting in two weeks. I'm optimistic that this will be the one.