Juggling Multiple Roles-and Multiples

摘要

When my husband and I found out that I was pregnant with twins, we were stunned-literally for weeks (my husband, I think, was stunned for months). My mood oscillated between pure ecstatic joy and stark uncertainty of how we could handle the arrival of not one but two babies. At age 37,1 was too much of a realist to think that these babies would be "pure bundles of joy" through witnessing the many trials and tribulations (and joys!) of motherhood in many of my friends and via my experiences of being a stepmother. Frankly, though, I was not sure what to expect at all and I was not sure who I would be as a mother, who my husband would be as a father to the twins (although I had a good idea that he would be a great father by witnessing his relationship with his son), and who we would be as a couple and family. And who would I become in my career, including my role with The Journal of Sexual Medicine (JSM)? Would I still travel as much, publish as much, or would I slow down and struggle to get back on my feet again?