Searching for fellow PhD students

[youngblowfish]

Hello,

I find myself badly in need of company as a newly pregnant PhD student. I am about to start my second year and, all being well, I should be 12 weeks by the beginning of October.

Are there any pregnant/parents PhD students out there? I could really do with a thesis writing support thread and it would be lovely to chat to people who are in a similar position.

Hey Dotty, nice to see you. My goal is to do some reading today too. I will, I will! No amazon shopping for me today

NNT - that does does sound good actually, and more like the 'real world' where things are done with advisory groups and in teams.

True, Miffy - it's almost flattering to have so many people's attention on me!

Well progress is slow, but there has been some. I'm currently reading a thesis a professional colleague wrote a few years ago. Really good and inspiring. And she sent me it as a pdf so I am reading it on my new Christmas present kindle!

Yes, I was v. pleased on Christmas morning. It was the first time I'd tried a pdf, but it was pretty good - and great to be able to slip some serious reading into my bag - I took it to DD1's swimming lesson this evening.

So how's everyone doing? I'm feel like I'm coming face to face with the reality of research - often slow, unrewarding slog. One element of what I'm working on is a history of a profession/sector and as part of that I am trying to reconstruct the debates from the 1970s and 1980s by going back through professional journals and newsletters from the period. I had previously been deluding myself that my great age and experience would make PhD work quicker and more manageable than if I was a straight out of UG-degree, no experience of work 20-something. However in this regard I am completely mistaken. Some things just take ages...(And only partly because I keep getting distracted by photos of senior figures now very respectable in their bearded/alternative youth!)

ha ha! love the distractions Dotty

oh god I need a deadline or something to keep me on the straight and narrow cos I'm in serious january drift.
Got to get my head round ethics forms which is so hard I have given up and booked a meeting with supervisor tomorrow.
Been on some training in my host organisation (doing a CASE studentship) which has been great and met a key person on a session yesterday by default which was good.
But generally not feeling very productive. All I've done today - the only day when have childcare and the house is quiet, husband at work etc - all I've managed to do is book my £9.50 sun holiday (!!) and send out christmas thank yous, oh and put up my 2011 planner

help!

I'm a fellow PhD student! I see this is an older thread but would love to join. Doing a PhD on my second attempt as I had my dd in my first year of my first attempted PhD and my funding was withdrawn (long story). Now happily doing my PhD at a different university with a two year old dd and dp (considerably older!) in tow.

Hi Snuppeline, welcome! are you full time or part time? arts / science / social science?

To update on me from above post -
I had a supervision meeting yesterday. Got a a couple of tasks now (including ethics forms) to be getting on with. Have that 'oh it's ages away...' feeling now but I know the next 5 weeks will go quickly.

Hi Miffy and Snuppline - welcome, and hello again. I've spent a long time being distracted by holidays too - a week away at Easter sorted, summer to go. Where are you managing to go for £9.50??

Next meeting with supervisor for me is in first week in Feb. 5000 words to produce by then. Amount of material gathered so far - probably enough for about 1000. Idly wonders if he'd like some of the beard photos too...

I'm sure he'd love to see them Dotty!

Not sure if we've got the holidays yet - have put in for a holiday park near amsterdam, and then caravan in N.Wales or Ireland. We shall see

saw my sup today and she joked about having to crack the whip on me now So really must wow her with some product in a few weeks. eep.

Supervisors' meeting yesterday - four people all pointing me in slightly different directions. It was helpful, really, but it also left me thinking I've bitten off more than I can chew. A bit overwhelmed.

NNT - know how you feel. The enormity of it is a bit much sometimes. My old colleague said not to think about the big picture too much !
Break it down into tasks isn't that what they say? What can you tackle first ? I'm trying to get my head round discourse analysis and work out if I need to do it or not :/

Been holed up in the library all week. Got lots of material now - just need to turn it into a coherent account by the end of Tuesday. Am not anxious about it (yet) - partly distracted by it being my birthday tomorrow so definitely a day off.

Sorry to hear you're feeling overwhelmed, NNT. Am sure Miffy's right - I'm trying not to think about the whole project but just the next step. But if I had 4 people promoting their point of view about what I should do next, that might be harder. My supervisor is more didactic than I expected and does push quite hard for a particular approach to the question. But he did once stop himself and say 'you don't have to listen to me, you know - it's your thesis'.

Supervision tomorrow. 5000 words to produce before then. Already have 4000, but not in the right order. DD1 has special school church service she wants me to go to at 2.15...Which leaves 3.5 hours, and as long as I have the energy for tonight. How's it going with the rest of you?

Good luck with the deadline, dotty!

Do any of you read the various books on how to write a PhD? I've just had a bit of a spree on Amazon. I think I'd be better off doing the work I need to do rather than read about it, but who knows, maybe there are some magic tips in there that will make all the difference...

Went to church service then took DD1 to after school club instead of them picking her up. Now back to writing. But feeling like absolute heel because she was upset at having to go to after school club instead of playing on the park with her friends then coming home with me. But she should be grateful I took time out to come in the first place!!! Not logic that cuts any ice with a 5 yo, of course...

Let me know if any of the books are any good. Not looked at them yet, but maybe I should.

Now have 6000 words, 2000 of them coherent. Best press on.

Well done dotty.... I was due to submit my first chapter yesterday but I have one section to rewrite, some references to dig out and a proof read with absolutely no childcare tomorrow or Thursday! Eeek! Need to do some tonight really but dh will moan so prob not worth it!

I have tons of those books but haven't had time to read them!

I've had the 'How to get a Phd' one out of the library, it was OK but not a great deal of new info. I've bought the unwritten rules of phd research by Petre& Rugg. I like it, it's more about the soft/people skills required.

I'm still feeling a bit at sea. Have a vague deadline to find out some things by 3 weeks time I have decided to start keeping a research diary, daily log to keep myself on track and work out what I'm doing.

Oh and DD2 has chicken pox! thankfully OH is around to nurse her, and she seems OK in herself though she looks rough.

The Unwritten Rules is one of the ones I've ordered, so glad to hear it has some good stuff.

Sorry to hear about the chickenpox, Miffy!

Hop you've done what needed to be done, dotty and notremotely.

Another question - do you all want to be academics when you finish the PhD? I'm looking at the hours that academics around me work and I'm fairly repelled by the long hours culture. Not sure if that's the life I want for myself. Which begs the question: why go down this road?

Hiya all - RIGHT I desperately need help or advice of you guys - I came back last Aug to embark on my second year of PHD after 9 months of from PhD mat leave with first DD - back full time as nursery look after DD full time. I got 4 months full Mat pay - any way I am (and some may say Im mad) but thinking of having another one soon - deperate not to have too large gap as have F/H problems with conceiving - (am 31) but really not sure when will be the best time - I have planned to be due in and aorund when funding stops (June 2012) am I nuts or should I try earlier and be due two three months before funding stops (will I get mat pay twice) - this all sounds shamefully calculating but I have no choice to think this way - if I am due around when funding stops I will obviously be in receipt of no income, zero, nothing.....does anyone know if Research councils pay mat leave twice? is it wise to have a baby during the write up year?
Help - I cant turn to anyone at work as this so personal!!!!

Hi Sab

How were you after having first one? It is tricky juggling two ... but worse than that was just the mushy brain feeling I had from sleep deprivation.

I personally wouldn't attempt it - I had DD2 whilst on a contract research job and I found returning to work with a 5 month old v.hard. She didn't sleep through til 16 months old so I spent nearly a year of working (some of it was writing up)in a sleep deprived fug and it was hard! (and that was pt)

I would say though that you never know when ttc will be successful, so I'd say maybe start trying when you have the fieldwork (?) out of the way and see what happens. It may be that feel the you get more writing done than you think before baby #2 hopefully comes along

Hi everyone - got my 6666 words done (must admit had a childish moment and tweaked it from 6664) and my supervisor said it was a good basis for a chapter, with a few extra bits added. So I am feeling pleased and I must say, resting on my laurels for a day or two as I have a horrible cold and want to put my feet up and snuggle up with the DDs.

Hi Sab - I don't know what to suggest, really. I guess the first thing is to check re. maternity leave and whether you would be paid again. My conditions aren't clear on whether you are allowed more than one batch - you will just have to phone them up and ask, I suppose. I found going from one to two v.hard, I must say. I had a 2.2 age gap, so not super-small. But DD1 was hard work around the time DD2 was born (who can blame her?) and stopped sleeping through so we were up in the night with both of them, and I was very down for the first few months. I definitely, definitely couldn't have done any work then. And it was harder going back to work after mat leave the second time as well. I was working part-time then and used to have a few hours to myself on days off when DD1 slept when I went back after having her - to clean house, catch up with emails etc. But when DD2 was born, there was no respite. And I found that a baby and a toddler took up much more head-space than just one baby.

Of course you might be lucky, and get them both to nap at the same time etc. But that never worked out in our house. OTOH, if you have serious worries about conceiving, you have to think about what's more important to you. Now they are 5 and 3 I think the gap is perfect and don't regret a thing. But you are young and time is on your side.

re. working afterwards. I don't really know. But not really aiming for FT academia - thinking more along the lines of some p/t lecturing to supplement consultancy work. And I have fantasies of being a Visiting Professor type, but that's prob some way down the line...

No advice, Sab. I only have one dc myself.

Congrats on getting your 6666 done, dotty, you devil!

So this week, I have done almost no substantive phd work, but I have rid myself of most of my outstanding freelance work (and should do the rest today). So that's a great relief. After half term I will have 3.5 whole days a week JUST to do my PhD. Have also learned to use refworks - am going to start now. And attended a 'how I got through my phd session' at a training day, with 3 recent graduates who had all found the phd experience traumatic in various ways. I really appreciated their honesty and candour but I did sit there feeling slightly guilty as, for me so far (and I appreciate not everyone's so lucky), when I get time to actually sit down and work, the work itself is fun. (Mind you, one of them had got divorced, had a serious accident and had to take a year off and come out during the course of his phd, so I can see that would all take the shine off the joy of study a bit...)