B.A.B.E. Week 0: a podcast that brought back blogging

As some of you know, I have been hatching a podcast idea for the past 3-4 months.  I have been planning to do a podcast on what its like trying to balance baby with fitness, exploration and a career from the 1^st week of baby’s life to the 52^nd week.

I wanted to do a podcast because Wilson and I love the medium (there is even some overlap in which podcasts we enjoy) and I thought that it would be a good way to digest the first year of our baby's life.  Also thought it could be a resource to parents who want to listen in at specific weeks about what we were going through at that specific period in our family. I deally that could help parents feel not as alone during those weeks. Finally because of the circumstances of our life, such as living abroad, I felt that this podcast was a way to connect with our global 'village' people about what is happening in our lives.

As part of the process I learned how to produce podcasts (not that hard), bought some equipment (not that expensive), and figured out a structure (2 parts to each episode (interview and recap of that week’s events). I also recorded original intro music and some other parts of the podcast such as a spoken intro, ending, and a test interview.   

I had even planned the following week interview schedule (with ideas for interviewees): Week 1: roundtable of moms talking about their birth story; Week 2: breastfeeding; Week 3: Getting moving and mom recovery; Week 4: Making sure significant other is involved and not left behind; Week 5: First big trip with baby; Week 6: Sleeping and feeding schedules; Week 7: Medically cleared and ready to run? Week 8: Developmental milestones; Week 9: What can I eat, drink, etc? and so on...

The podcast plan was great except for three things: (1) the workload didn't seem to ease up even though I thought I could manage the time demands by pre-recording interviews; (2) many of our family and friends don't listen to podcasts; and (3) I found my own podcast boring. With these three barriers, I have decided to accept the sunk costs and implement my podcast idea here on the blog.

On the blog, I plan to write every week about baby's development but also about how that fits within work, exercise, and travel. These core areas have been important to me from the genesis of my idea and so the podcast has gone through a series of acronyms/names:

- FiBEC: Fitness, Baby, Exploration, and Career
- BEWT: Baby, Exercise, Work, Travel
- BABE: Baby, Aspirations, Body, Exploration.

The BABE acronym is the winner and courtesy of my 13 year old nephew. It's catchier and as anyone that has hung out with us for more than an hour, we throw that term of endearment around pretty liberally.

So here I am at B.A.B.E. Week 0.  It is Week 0 because the baby has not arrived. I am 38 weeks pregnant and “balancing” work, travel, and exercise.

Work – I am still working remotely (for the Center for International Environmental Law) and I've got the pressures of finishing projects and tying up loose ends prior to going on leave from my job for three months.

Travel – Wilson and I are currently living apart because we decided that it would be best for us to have the baby in the US rather than the Bahamas. So as of now, I live in the suburbs just outside of Nashville with my sister and am grateful for every day that the baby has not decided to come early…

Exercise - Well, I haven't been doing too much of that lately because I don't want the baby to come early. Throughout the pregnancy, I tried to walk, bike, climb a little (when I could), do calisthenics, and run (but I had to stop running around 27 weeks). Now in the past week, I haven't really exercised because I am paranoid that the baby will come early. But without exercise, I am starting to swell. Yuck. And get a bit frustrated. So my plan has been to walk a little and really looking forward to when Wilson arrives May 1. As soon as May 1 brings Wilson to Nashville, I will walk (or more accurately waddle) to my heart's content.

Written by Mu, posted by Dub