DISSERTATION PROPOSAL DEFENSE: In the middle of May, I SUCCESSFULLY defended my proposal 🎉 (Read my proposal! It’s really long and Chapter 3 is going in the trash 🗑. For those of you less familiar with PhD programs, it’s pretty standard to write a proposal for what and how and why regarding your topic before you actually collect data. I did that kinda backwards…but regardless, I got approved to do the research I’ve already done 😂! Which means I can get into the nitty gritty of data analysis and get some findings out there! 🎓

JOURNAL ARTICLE: I finally got through all the rounds of required revisions for a journal submission I sent in a year ago 🤨 and it has been sent to the publisher for final copyediting 📝! So in the next few months(?), “Breastfeeding without nursing: “If only I’d known more about exclusively pumping before giving birth” will be published in the Journal of Human Lactation 📰.

POSTPARTUM DOULA TRAINING: My work in the ivory towers of academia 🏫 only goes so far (not very, in fact). I feel a calling to also help with the greater problem of lack of postpartum support in general. I’ve been told that I have a reassuring demeanor about me when I’m talking to new parents 😌, so I felt like working as a postpartum doula would be way to continue to help. This past weekend, I took the most amazing training (though I am thoroughly exhausted 😴) and hope to complete the other requirements for certification in the next few months.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATION: While I was at the training, I got the email telling me that I have been accepted to present “The Information Needs of Exclusive Pumpers” at the Healthy Children Project’s International Breastfeeding Conference in January 2019 in Florida 🏝. I am so excited to be getting my findings out there to those folks working with breastfeeders themselves😄!

UPCOMING ATTRACTIONS: I have submitted a few other conference proposals (🤞Japan in October🤞), have a few more proposals to submit, am working with an amazing grad student who is helping me code some of my qualitative data 👩‍💻, will be working with a world-renowned epidemiologist to analyze my quantitative data, am doing some classes in the School of Public Health so I can reframe my work into that perspective (I thought I was done with classes 😭), and have a publisher potentially interested in publishing the book I am planning to write 📚. PHEW!