The Roche Report

I read a lot when I was pregnant. I read parenting books, parenting blogs, signed up for parenting email blasts. I read really good and really important things - like how to get my baby to  sleep through the night  (and this book works wonders - she was sleeping through the night at 9 weeks) and  how to calm my baby  - that have significantly improved my parenting experience.  One thing that I didn’t read much about (though I think it is out there and perhaps it just didn’t quite resonate with me until I was actually doing it) was pumping. Before I begin my thoughts on this: a little background. I was unsure about the whole breastfeeding thing and adopted an attitude of “we’ll see how it goes.” It actually probably ranked at the top of my parenting fears. I kind of wanted it to work; but frankly, I also kind of thought the whole thing was gross.  However, I gave it a go, and have actually had a pretty great experience with it, helped by the fact that IBM h...

As I think about feedback that I have gotten throughout my career, or throughout my life really, it is kind of funny because you realize that many things change but often the feedback about you and what you need to improve repeats itself a number of times throughout your life. For example, I vividly remember on my first report card with grades, the comments from the teacher were, "Caroline is very smart, but needs to slow down, take her time, and double check her work." Likewise, on the first business process design deliverable I did as a new analyst on my first project out of college, I was SO proud of my deliverable and thought I had knocked it out of the park... and it came back (thanks Megan!) with quite a bit more feedback than I had anticipated, with the comment that I needed to "pay more attention to detail." I often relay this story for new analysts because I have improved quite a bit in my attention to detail since then -- but have really, really focused ...

I came back from maternity leave two weeks ago and it has been a fun, anxious, and fulfilling two weeks back. When my maternity leave started, I actually really struggled with loneliness -- going from my job, which involves talking to and being around people all day to being with Charlie all day. She is the best baby ever; however, she is still not quite the best conversationalist. The challenge was figuring out how to fill my days while adjusting to my new life. At first, going to the grocery store felt like I had run a marathon physically (and while I'm at it, learning how to enter the world with a baby in tow is a whole new learning curve. My first time going to the grocery store, I though I could put her car seat in a cart and didn't bring my stroller with me... and as you can see below... that didn't work too well. Thankfully, my sister-in-law was with me and could carry our basket of groceries also since nothing else fit in the cart). At the end of the day, I wo...

Before I started my maternity leave, I had recently finished a training program that IBM has called Cornerstone, which is a training program for Associate Partners who are on the executive track at IBM. One of the key messages from the program was to think about who your “authentic self” was and being intentional about being that authentic self both as a leader and at home. Coming out of that training, I have spent a lot of time thinking about being intentional about just who that authentic self is and, really, if I boil it down, who and what I want to be. Some of it includes reflecting on the typical things you would expect to think about from a work perspective (what kind of leader am I, what kind of executive do I want to be, how do I want to be known at IBM, what do I want my team to think of me?). Much of it has also played out on a more personal level, as my husband and I had our first child in November, I have been reflecting a lot about who I want to be as a mom, as a ...

With one week to go in my maternity leave, I have a trip that I have both anticipated and dreaded for the past 5 months. Anticipated for the fun of what it will be: wine tasting in Napa and Sonoma, celebrating the upcoming wedding of one of my dearest friends; dreading leaving my sweet, smiley baby at home. When she was born, I remember feeling like I would never be able to -- never would WANT -- to leave her side. And yet, life continued and I slowly ventured out into the world, but nothing so dramatic as leaving Charlie for 4 hours, let alone 4 days. Before leaving, I raced around the house trying to prepare and make my husband's life easier while he was home with her. I cried as I put Charlie to bed, explaining to her that Mom would wake her up on Monday morning. I read and read and read blogs about pumping while traveling; I fretted and planned and fretted and planned about what I would do and where I would pump and what it would be like. My worries about the travel kept me...