An Interview with Sarah from The SHU Box

Meet Sarah from The SHU box! This pediatrician started blogging back in 2004. Sarah shares a summary of her TTC story, one of her favorite recipes (listed on her site!), and some of her top lessons learned as a mother.

Tell us more about yourself, your family, and your site. When did you first start your site, The Shu box, and what motivated you to start your site?

To start with, I’m a 32-year old new mom living in North Carolina.  I’m a pediatrician finishing up training in pediatric endocrinology — just one more year left to go.  We’re a two-doctor household:  my husband is finishing up his fellowship in vascular surgery.   We’re quite busy, but used to the challenges of dealing with crazy hours and unexpected surprises.  Our daughter Annabel is now 2 months old and motherhood has been a wonderful adventure so far!

My blog has actually been around for quite some time – I started posting in 2004 while on an away rotation during medical school, just to give myself a place to vent and something to do!  However, over the years the site has become not only an outlet for me but a place of community.  I’ve had so much fun meeting and interacting with readers, and now that I’ve become a parent, I find that it’s a place where I get so much great advice from veterans who have been through it all before.

Can you tell us a little bit about your TTC story?

My TTC story is actually rather long and frustrating, but in a nutshell we struggled to get pregnant for over 2 years.  I never ovulated on my own after going off of the pill, and ended having to make some lifestyle changes (cutting back on running, and gaining a few lbs) and taking medication to conceive.  There were some extremely tough times along this journey but looking back it was just SO worth it!  Anyone interested in more details can read about them here.

What was it like getting back to work after giving birth? What were some of the differences between prepping for work now versus prepping for work before birth?

Well  . . .  I haven’t gone yet!  I chose to take 12 weeks off (don’t be jealous — it’s 2 years’ worth of vacation, plus I’ll have to do an extra month of my fellowship on the back end).   I’m feeling ready to head back to work, but so sad to be leaving Annabel with others, and nervous about being able to fit in everything I want to do.  Oh, and I’m anxious about pumping and keeping up my milk supply!!   Hopefully it will all work out.  I’m planning on writing a post on my AM routine once I get one started.  It scares me to think about how much equipment I’ll need to carry out the door every day!

What have been your favorite recipes to make from the “cook” section of your site? Which recipe did you find the tastiest?

Ahh, it would be hard to pick a favorite!  I actually don’t tend to repeat recipes very often — for me, the fun part of meal planning and dinner prep is always trying new flavor combinations and techniques.  I will say my favorite everyday resources to use are magazines:  Cooking Light, Real Simple, Clean Eating and Eating Well can all be found on my countertop.  I love quick recipes that don’t taste like they were thrown together in 20 minutes!  A great example would be the dijon dill salmon we enjoyed last night with friends.

What are the top three lessons you have learned as a mom? 

I definitely still feel very much a greenhorn mom, and I’m learning as I go!  But so far I would say I’ve learned -

- There are things I cannot control — and it’s actually counterproductive to try!

- Trust that the baby knows what she’s doing — and go with her flow.  (ie, she will show me when she needs to sleep if I pay attention!)

- Taking care of me is important too — I need to make sure I eat, drink, and rest appropriately, or no one wins.

Do you have a motto or saying that you and your family live by?  

I love this quote:  Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.  Meaning:  there will be difficult times, but it’s in how we choose to face them that ends up shaping our experiences and our lives. 

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Site:  http://theshubox.com

Twitter:  theshubox

Email:  shuboxblog@gmail.com