Weekly MILS Roundup #4

Time for the weekly Moms in Law School Roundup. Without further ado, what the law school moms are doing this week:

• Bringing home baby (Lag Liv)
• Completing the last test (parens binubus and From Engineer to Lawyer)
• Putting law school in perspective (The Merits of the Case)
• Reminding us to take care of ourselves (PT-Lawmom)
• Giving marital advice. (Diary of a Law School Mom)
• Choosing a theme song (Peanut Butter Burrito)
• Leaving parties early (Frequent Citations)
• Overreacting (1L wannabe)
• Taking on too much (Knocked Up (and in Law School))
• Running out of time (A little fish in law school)
• Filling us in on the latest (Magic Cookie)

The Weekly Moms In Law School (MILS) Roundup** is hosted on a rotating basis here, at PT-LawMom, and at A Little Fish in Law School and is usually posted no later than Monday morning. Next week’s MILS Roundup will be at PT-LawMom.

If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILS blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

**Hat tip to the creators of the “original” Law School Roundup — Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and Divine Angst.

Recurring Dreams

I have been having school related dreams lately, but, for some reason, in my dreams being in school always means living in the dorms, even though I won't be living in the dorms and the last couple times I attended school I didn't live in dorms. I think it must be because I feel like law school is going to take over my whole life more than school did the last couple times I matriculated.

Anyway, a couple nights ago I had this dream that I was coming back to the dorms (the dorms in this dream were the dorms I lived in as an undergrad) and coming up to the guard desk and I couldn't find my ID. I don't know if I lost it or if I didn't have it yet because school had just started, but I got delayed at the guard desk and while I was standing there talking to the guard I heard the little guy crying from my room and a woman at the guard desk heard it too. She said, "Oh, a baby!" and I said "That's MY baby!" I think at that point she let me through. Then when I got up to the floor that my room was on I couldn't figure out which room was mine. I had the room number but I couldn't decipher it, it was like 7G9 or something like that and I didn't know what it meant (not being able to find my dorm room has been another recurring theme in my dreams lately). So, I finally find the room and go in and the little guy is crying in his crib and I feel horrible for leaving him alone.

I had another dream a while back where I was living in the dorms and sharing a room with a couple other people and hubby and the little guy were not living with me and were living in separate places. The little guy was in some kind of nursery and I went to visit him there and was so sad that he was living in this institutional-type place. I remember saying, "WHY isn't there some place where we can all live together?!?"

I guess my subconscious is expressing the fear that I might be abandoning my family in some way by going to law school. I know I'm not, but I guess it's all related to what I was talking about last week -- the feeling that I won't be able to be a good mother if I am doing something else. Anyway, I know that, for me, I have to do something else or I won't be a good anything, but it is still there.

One Year Ago...

It is amazing how much the little guy has changed in a year. I'm not going to say that I can't believe it has been a year already because so much has changed in our lives since he was born that it feels much longer. But it also does feel like we're still new parents; and I know that most of the really hard stuff, but also most of the really cool stuff, is still ahead of us. It's exciting to see him making new discoveries and learning new skills every day. Just in the last week he has taken a few steps on his own and I know it won't be too long now before he says his first word (I'm betting on "train").

Weekly MILS Roundup #3

This week's Weekly Moms in Law School Roundup is at A Little Fish in Law School. Next week it will be back here.

Multitasking

PT-LawMom's post the other day brought up some issues that I have been thinking about recently. Does being a mom mean I'll never be as good at anything else as I would have been if I wasn't a mom? Will I be at a disadvantage because I won't ever be able to give anything 100% like someone who isn't a mom could?

Although I've been doing it for almost a year now, I know that I am not cut out to be a 100% stay at home mom, so sometimes I feel like I am doomed to a life of being only half of anything. I will always be a mom, so whatever else I do will be hyphenated with "mom" -- law student-mom, lawyer-mom, whatever.

But at the same time I know that almost everybody has family and friends and a life outside of work or school that limits, or should limit, how much time they are able or willing to commit to other things. So, really everybody is hyphenated: teacher-friend or doctor-wife or accountant-daughter. Of course being a mom is different than being a daughter or wife or friend. For one thing a friendship will likely survive even if you don't see the each other for a couple months.

I haven't really resolved how I feel about all this yet. I realize that what I am feeling is related to this ideal of motherhood that society has created that maybe isn't really ideal and is definitely unfair to women. And there are times when I think being a mom could actually be an advantage. I am used to having only small chunks of time in which to get things done and, knowing that I won't be able to spend the night in the library, I will be motivated to do my work more quickly and efficiently than someone who doesn't have my constraints might. I am the kind of person who gets more done when I have less time to do it in, so it is even possible that I will be a better law student as a mother than I would have been had I gone to law school before I had the little guy.

Weekly MILS Roundup #2

PT-LawMom and Butterflyfish have kindly offered to share hosting responsibility for the Weekly Moms in Law School Roundup**. This week it is at PT-LawMom. Next week it will be at A Little Fish in Law School, and the following week it will be back here.

If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILS blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

**Hat tip to the “original” Roundup — Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and divine angst

Lonely Tooth

This tooth broke through over eight weeks ago and has yet to be joined by any others. The doctor said the little guy reminded her of Popeye's son Swee'Pea, who, although I couldn't find a picture to prove it, apparently only had one tooth. It makes for some funny grins. Sometimes, when he's feeling mischievous or playful, he gives us a pirate grin, with his tooth and gums clenched together, his lips open wide and his eyes squinted. The little guy has been a little extra cranky the last couple days though and didn't sleep well the last two nights, so tooth number two may be coming soon.

First Weekly Moms in Law School (MILS) Roundup

I'm going to start a weekly roundup of posts by moms in law school (or pretty close on one side or the other). I know I'm not even in law school yet, so I hope no one finds this presumptuous of me, but I thought it would be nice to highlight the posts each week that would be most useful or interesting to other moms in or thinking about starting law school. I know I don't know about all the blogging moms in law school, so if you are a mom in law school (or about to start) with a blog and you are not in my blogroll or if you know of someone who is not in my blogroll and should be please let me know. So, without further ado, my roundup of the best posts this week by moms in law school:

• Good help is hard to find (Diary of a Law School Mom)


• Drama, however, is easy to find (A Little Fish in Law School)


• The free food diet (Frequent Citations)


• Early rankings (Magic Cookie)


• Asking for advice (PT-LawMom)


• Sometimes pictures are better than words (parens binubus)

Ready

With just over a month until law school my earlier anxiety is gone and now I am feeling ready, even eager, to start. I went shopping last week and bought some new clothes that fit -- I have lost some weight recently and now weigh less than I did before I was pregnant, so everything I owned was too big -- which has probably added to my confidence level.

I am also getting back in to reading some books from my pre-law reading list. I finished Gideon's Trumpet, which was good, although at times it seemed padded with a little too much basic info on the Supreme Court. But I was unfamiliar with the history of the right to a lawyer and Gideon himself was an interesting guy, so I thought it was a worthwhile read even though it was fairly light. I have now returned to A History of American Law. It is a long and pretty dense book, but I think that it would be useful to have that background and if I read just 10 pages a day I will be able to finish it before school starts. I am actually aiming for 20 pages a day though, because I would like to have time to read something else before school starts as well.

There are a few minor law school related tasks to attend to before school starts, like completing my student loan entrance interview online (I actually already did this but the financial aid office doesn't seem to have a record of it, so I sent them the email confirmation I got and have to follow up with them on that next week), getting in touch with the person responsible for certifying my enrollment to the VA so I can get my GI Bill benefits, and signing up for or submitting a waiver for the student insurance. I won't find out what professors I have or what my schedule will be until the first day of orientation (although I may be able to find out a few days earlier online), so I can't buy books or start filling in my weekly schedule or anything like that yet. I do have the schedule for orientation though. Ours is just two days, and the second day is optional, but highly recommended. I plan on attending both days, but will probably skip the evening stuff so I can get home in time to relieve the nanny and put the little guy to bed.