‘Don’t have a baby in fellowship’ but that was too late,” Sonia said.
“We were already pregnant.”
The couple knew that they were going to need lots, and different,
support from their family and friends. “Honestly, we could not have
done it without help from her family,” Chris said. “Both her parents
came right before he was born and stayed a good three months.
During fellowship up there, I was not available. I could not leave
what I was doing.”
Sonia understood firsthand just how much time Chris would
have to devote to his fellowship and welcomed the helping hands.
“I needed help! He operated the second day after our son was born,”
she said with a laugh. “Which was fine, I don’t begrudge that at
all. I know that he had to do what he had to do. I wanted him to
finish. I didn’t want him to have any issues with his fellowship. But
I needed help.”
After their son, Cyrus, was born, the couple soon realized that
they were going to have to make some major adjustments to their
day-to-day schedules. Ultimately, Sonia decided to scale back her
responsibilities at her practice. “It’s always hard [to scale back]
because like everybody else, I had a full office and patients I’d been
following for years. It’s not easy,” she said. “I went to my practice
and I was very honest, and I told them ‘I can’t realistically keep
doing this. But I want to still be helpful.’ So, this was the mix that
we found that worked.”
She had to notify all her patients that she was no longer going
to work in the office, just the hospital, and found that to be the
hardest part. “Nobody wants to do that. Nobody wants to create a
relationship with patients and then tell them that you’re not going to
see them anymore. So that was really tough,” she said. “But I’ll say,
when I came home to my kid, that part was easy. That was really easy.”
Two years later (to the date—the Comptons’ kids share a birthday
on Feb. 9, a special treat that they can’t wait to see the kids appreciate
more as they grow older) they welcomed their daughter, Ava, and
knew that it was time to adjust the mix again.
“I tried to do a lot of things to try to find the work and life bal-
ance. But it’s hard to do everything,” Sonia said. “Someone told me
a long time ago that you can do everything, but everything’s not
going to get 100 percent. And I kind of believe that. And having
children adds a new layer to that.” As she explained, sometimes
not even your children will get 100 percent of your good attitude
or best parenting skills on any given day. “You just have to do the
best that you can each day.”
Sonia now works part-time at KPA, allowing her to spend more
time with her kids and get them to and from school and activities
every day. She tries to remind herself, when trying to figure out all
the time crunches, that “Nothing is set in stone.”
“I think that everything is a work in progress, even the schedule
that we have now. It’s working right now, but maybe it won’t work
forever,” she said. “Things change. And that is something that I think
extends to parenting. Kids change week to week, year to year, and
so do we. If you’re not willing to adapt, then you’re not going to be
happy. You just have to find what works for you.”
Adapting to change has been a constantly evolving process. Sonia
shared a story that many physician couples will recognize. While
she was working one weekend, Chris was at home with the kids
when he got called into surgery. He packed them up and brought
them to the hospital. Said Sonia, “[Once they got to the hospital] I
took them into the doctors’ lounge, gave them some snacks, then let
them run up and down the pedways. They thought it was awesome.”
Now that their kids are getting older (Cyrus is five and Ava is
three) the couple enjoys all sorts of new things. Chris and Cyrus take
taekwondo together and Sonia and Ava always tag along. “It’s really
fun for me and Ava, we go and watch,” she said. “Or participate!”
Chris added, laughing, “Ava loves to participate.”
“But it’s really fun for me as a mom to see him and Cyrus out
there doing that together, I really like that,” said Sonia.
Chris also noted that at their current ages, their kids are always
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