I managed to complete three chapters of my thesis before the baby was born. Chloe Alana Mire was born on 2 May 2010 at about 1:10 a.m. She weighed 3145 grams, and measured 49 cm. While it was great that Michelle got to spend 5 days in hospital, with immediate assistance when needed, she was glad to come home. Since arriving at home, Chloe has been doing all the normal baby things and growing regularly. She's now a month old, and typically has about six hours of unsettled periods each day. As much of a pain as that is, it is certainly better than complete silence from her.
Since her birth, I've spent most of the time helping Michelle out with incidental stuff (which is a lot when there's a baby!). Finally, about a week ago, I was able to really get back into finishing my thesis. I completed revisions on one chapter and sent it on to my co-supervisor, and I'm now almost done with my fourth chapter -- which puts me at the halfway mark. I deliberately chose to write the most difficult chapters first, and I think now that was a great decision. The remaining chapters are a bit of fluff, because I'm not really discussing results, but rather, doing an introduction of work similar to my project, and a conclusion to tie everything together. I could write that kind of stuff over half a bottle of wine.
What's more challenging is finding a post-doc. I don't particularly want to go back to America, because the salary will be too low (~US$50K/year, minus US$10K/year for family health insurance = $40K/year for a 60-hour workweek -- not a respectable salary for someone with a PhD in the hard sciences plus ten years of I.T. experience!). Australia is still appealing, but international students really are treated like shit here, and it doesn't matter from what country. Australia views international students as cash cows and nothing more. Unlike Australian students, who get a several thousand dollar youth allowance around the time they finish high school, half-price concessions on public transport, no visa deadline looming over them for completion of studies, and so on -- international students get no assistance and pay full price for things like public transport. The scholarships provided by universities here are less than the minimum wage, and (modest) rent is expensive enough to consume 3/4 of that. Further, international students still pay taxes on income over A$5K/year, but get none of Australia's social benefits. And once an international student completes a course of study, there are numerous ridiculous hoops to jump through in order to stay here. The impression is that Australia just wants as much cash as they can shake out of international students, then kick them out of the country regardless of whether or not they could fill a need for Australia's industry or research interests. What's sadder is the mediocrity of Australian students, despite all the handouts. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't recommend Australia to anyone who is still a student. Established professionals who are recruited here are treated with a whole lot more respect, and will be paid a proper salary to cope with the high cost of living here.
By the time I graduate, I will have (pending acceptance) five papers published, and another one or two in the works. That's a decent number for a recent PhD graduate. I've been looking at possible post-doc positions in Europe and Canada, and have applied to all that seem appealing and that I'm qualified for. One thing that is somewhat frustrating is that I want to do research in tissue engineering/regenerative medicine -- but many of those labs want biologists more than materials scientists/engineers. Fortunately, I will have a short-term contract once I hand in my thesis which will hold me over financially until graduation (my scholarship stops the moment I submit my thesis -- my top-up scholarship stopped right at the 3-year mark with no advanced notification to me...which is typical of most Australians' communication skills). A number of good post-doc positions have deadlines in the first few months of the year. Due to the timing of my thesis write-up, I missed those deadlines this year -- but I will apply for them next year and I will be in a stronger position anyways.
I'm sure I will land a nice position somewhere. I just wish it wasn't such a big unknown at this time.
