Day 73: Sent from my maternity leave

My new email signature

As a business owner and forever-freelancer, a traditional maternity leave has never quite been in the cards. I knew going in that it would be up to me to design it for myself — to create the space and runway I needed to rest and acquaint myself with postpartum life.

This was one area where I had all these grand plans. To read all the books on the “fourth trimester” and crowdsource how other founders managed a maternity leave from their own businesses.

But as we get closer and planning for the future gets sidelined by more immediate priorities and the reading fog holds hostage any extra-curricular brain capacity I once had…the idea of maternity leave is tossed to the wind.

Perhaps I’ll be wrapped up with projects before this baby comes (thankfully we are on track!).

Perhaps his July arrival will happen in perfect timing, coinciding with a natural lull in business as clients take off for their own summer adventures.

Perhaps I’ll be able to run everything in the in-between moments of contractions and nap times and ridiculously early morning breast-feeding when I can tap away on my phone and get at least a few emails out.

We’ve managed in the in-between moments with one kiddo before, and also during the pandemic and also during vacations and other classified personal life upheavals.

We always get through it. And through it all we find new ways to innovate and systematize and get even better in the work we do.

And I have to admit: there is a high in being able to move a project to the finish line while I’m also waiting in the school parking lot to pick up my stepdaughter. I love knocking out a piece of content on the plane and then walking out the terminal to a sunny family trip to Disney World. I am not one to “turn off” and that is something I’ll have to examine another day.

I am optimistic and naive about what postpartum looks like, I know. And what I’m describing is not the most admirable work-life balance at times—but it has afforded me the greatest privilege of professional freedom.

So for now, you may be getting emails “sent from my maternity leave.” Please excuse any typos.